How to Love
by Silver345
Summary: Knowing at what times people feel emotions is one thing, figuring out what it means, why it happens and more importantly how it works is another matter entirely. Major BBRae with a sprinkling of other pairings thrown in.
1. What is Love?

To the people following my other stories, yes, I know that I should focus on the other stories that I'm neglecting before I start a new one... Sorry... I just have issues with ignoring inspiration as it comes and benching things that haven't inspired me lately. So anyways, enjoy this!

I don't own Teen Titans or any of the characters.

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_Love. A simple four letter word. But yet, so much more. In the dictionary, a noun; a profoundly passionate affection for another person, a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend. And though it's meaning is so deep, so widely powerful, it seems to be misused most times it is used. Many youth use it lavishly to describe a favorite food, a person who does them a favor, and for a significant other that they will probably break up with in days._

_ But, though I know the facts about this "love", I still cannot fathom it. And I cannot even begin to explain how much that irritates me._

_ I pride myself in understanding the habits of those around me and their emotions. As an empath, I can tell what they're feeling and can connect their mannerisms with their vibrant emotions. This way, I can read my teammates without the expended energy of my powers._

_ But, love. One of the most volatile and unstable emotions there is besides anger. To me, it also happens to be the most infuriating._

_ When my teammates feel love without any kind of discretion, such as their friendly love of each other, it comes at me in waves. I can feel Nightwing and Starfire's still oblivious affection clearly, though neither of them dare act upon it. I feel Beast Boy and Cyborg's obvious friendship whenever I'm passed by the two. And every once in a while, I feel my teammates directing their affection towards me as well, though never romantically. However, I fail to detect the subtle nuances of this thing called love._

_ Even worse, I can't understand when I feel love within me. That is almost too much to bear. One would think they had some understanding of the feeling when all they had to do was look into a mirror. A magic mirror, granted, not something most people have. But, my emoticlones are no help. They speak in riddles, never being straightforward with me. They say they want me to figure it out myself, but sometimes I'm scared that they don't know themselves. I don't like not knowing things about myself._

_ Ever since my sixteenth birthday, I've been in uncharted territory. I thought I knew exactly how my life was going to map out. I was put on the Earth to be a portal for my father to come and destroy the world. When I joined the Titans, I decided that I would fight evil and give the people of this world as good of a life as they could get before I eventually destroyed them with merely my identity. And so, the world and my existence would end on my sixteenth birthday. But, that didn't happen. And now I have no plan._

_ I didn't _plan_ to love this world, this team, but I do understand that love cannot be controlled. I didn't _want_ to love any of it. And I certainly didn't plan to fall in love with a certain green teammate of mine._

_ The worst part is that my newness with this emotion makes it extremely difficult to tell whether or not he returns my feelings. Starfire somehow managed to extract a confirmation of my feelings from me and she is certain that he reciprocates my "crush" as I have been told it is called. She says he treats me better than the other Titans, but I don't see it. Maybe thats why she's making me write in this journal. She said something about how writing about my experiences with him and looking back at them will help me realize it. I don't think I'll ever understand human logic; every time I feel like I'm getting it, these people throw me a curveball._

Raven closed the black spiral bound notebook. She looked over the cover and ran her hand over the silver raven imprinted in the cloth covered cardboard. Starfire had given it to her as a gift for her eighteenth birthday and told her that she should record her thoughts in it. Apparently there was a market for Teen Titans merchandise and some designers had created this design based on her style. Or rather, just _Titans_ merchandise. She kept forgetting that Nightwing had changed the name as many of the members across the globe were moving out of their teenage years. Cyborg, Starfire and Nightwing were already past their teenage years at the ages of twenty-one and twenty. She and Beast Boy were the only ones still teenagers on the Titans West team. She had just turned eighteen and Beast Boy's eighteenth was approaching soon as well. It was hard to believe that it had already been four years since she joined the team, two years more than she had expected the world to last. And it was unbelievable how much they had all changed.

Cyborg was still mainly the same since he had already been mostly grown when he joined the Teen Titans, but he had toned down his loud "Booyah"s to a lower volume and began edging away from the increasingly outdated video games he had always played with Beast Boy and sometimes Robin. Starfire had become proficient in Earth expressions and was no longer confused when they said things that didn't translate directly to what the individual words meant. And though she was no longer as naive as she had been when she joined, she remained the bubbly, sweet girl she had always been. Robin had exchanged his traffic light suit and side-kick name for a darker color scheme and the name Nightwing. This happened almost directly after Starfire returned from the future and described how handsome Nightwing had been. He still hadn't grown out his hair, preferring his spiked locks to a long mane; better for fighting in his opinion and made him look less like Aqualad.

And Beast Boy. Where to start. As far as Raven knew, he had changed the most on the team, though she couldn't account for any of her own changes because she hadn't felt that she had changed at all. But for Beast Boy, the team had witnessed his transition through puberty since he joined at the age of thirteen going on fourteen. And they all agreed that it was a drastic change. His scrawny form had filled out and he had grown to be as tall as Starfire. With this growth spurt, he had also grown out of his old Doom Patrol uniforms. Though he felt bittersweet about the exchange because it seemed symbolic of leaving his childhood behind, overall he was happier with his new red and white suits that he found showed off his increasingly muscular shoulders and arms. And indeed, they were becoming more powerful. Raven couldn't help but notice that. She had also begun to notice that his jawline was much more defined than it had been and his shoulders… Oh Azar, what was happening to her?

Raven shook her head and looked at her clock. Had she really been daydreaming about Beast Boy for a whole five minutes? She sighed and locked the clasp on the notebook. The designer had conveniently added a lock to capture her air of mystery and secrecy and made the notebook perfect for her purposes. She lifted the key with a glow of dark magic and it disappeared with a twitch of her finger, sent off to Nevermore where over-curious green gremlins couldn't get it. Adorable green gremlins with pointy ears and an infectious grin… Gah!

Raven groaned as she realized that it had happened again. She roughly shoved the notebook into the drawer of her bedside table and brought her cloak to her with her magic. She fastened the clasp and pulled her hood over her head. She then opened the door and composed herself so that her face would keep the passive facade that it usually held. Raven's journey to the main ops room led her passed Beast Boy's room which only added to her frustration. He hadn't woken up yet, she could feel his presence from behind the steel door. She also picked up on distress, fear and panic. He was having another nightmare it seemed.

Raven sighed. One day, she would fight off his nightmares, comfort him. But right now, that was a boundary she wasn't willing to cross. Robin had already allowed her to enter his dreams and fight off his nightmares of Slade and other even more personal fears, but she felt uneasy about doing the same for the changeling for whatever reason. So she merely floated on knowing that in an hour or so the green Titan would shuffle into the main ops room with a sleepy grin on his face even though he was crying on the inside.

That fact alone was almost too much for her to bear, but she was too afraid to help him and she didn't know why. The corners of her mouth twitched downwards for a moment as she opened the door and floated over to the kitchen. She began heating water while she picked out the tea she would drink and took her gray mug from the drying rack where she had left it. Then she took her book off the counter top where it had been the previous night and waited for the day to play out as it would if there were no crime alerts to interrupt it.

Right on schedule, Nightwing walked in at exactly 6:45, fifteen minutes after his alarm clock went off. Fifteen minutes of the morning that he would use with maximum efficiency to get ready for the day ahead. He nodded to Raven and murmured a greeting before making himself a protein shake to take to the workout room. Once he left, Cyborg would get up come into the kitchen at some time from 7 to 7:20. He was always completely awake when he came out of his room, presumably because of the clock built into the side of his head. He would always greet Raven with a loud "G'morning, Rae Rae!" and would get to making a breakfast of eggs, bacon, and waffles while she glared daggers into the back of his head for the use of her nickname, though it had secretly grown on her since Beast Boy used it so frequently along with "mama" which she was still getting used to. Soon after Cyborg had dropped a plate of waffles in front of her, Starfire would float in lazily, a bit drowsy, but smiling none-the-less. The Tamaranian would give Cyborg a big hug but respected Raven's space and gave her a mere cheerful "hello". Next, Starfire would eat a sickening amount of waffles, grab a water bottle and fly off to the workout room to "lift weights" with Nightwing, though Raven had her own theories.

Cyborg sat down with his own plate of waffles with extra bacon piled up on the side, leaving a smaller plate for Robin when he returned. He made no attempt to make conversation between bites of waffle and bacon, knowing that Raven wouldn't be ready for chatting until a she had read for a bit longer. This was only partially true.

Raven was not ready to talk yet, but not because she wished to read more. No, she was much more occupied with her emotions and only held the book up to her face as a plausible excuse for staring straight in front of her for hours on end. She had already finished her waffles a bit ago and left the syrupy plate in front of her while she concentrated on Nevermore.

"I don't know why you don't just bust into his nightmare and start smacking things around; he'll at least be grateful to you for that if nothing else," Brave said, restlessly punching at an invisible foe in front of her. "It'll be a piece of cake."

"B-but… thats scary! What if he gets mad at us for intruding? I don't think that's a good idea, we should just leave things like they are…" Timid countered.

"Yes, that probably wouldn't be the most intelligent course of action," Wisdom said. "We need to make sure we don't scare him."

"Who cares about what he thinks?" Rude interrupted, slouching against one of the trees.

"She does. We all do. As far as I know, his is the only opinion that matters," Love stated simply.

"Azar, help me, will you all be quiet?!" Raven commanded, causing all her emoticlones to fall silent as Raven in her normal blue cloak touched down on the ground. "I can't function with you all talking at the same time!"

Wisdom stepped forward from her place leaning against the tree. "We're sorry, this is just an issue that we all feel needs to be resolved soon."

"A really attractive issue!" Love chimed in.

"A… uh… yes. That. And we all know what we want to come of this, but we _are_ just in your head giving advice. We can't actually act on any of our own ideas, so this is the best we have," Wisdom finished.

Raven put her hands on both sides of her head and shook it with an irritated look on her face. "_He_ is not an issue. If I ignore it, this little "crush" will go away."

"But do you want it to?"

"To what?"

"Go away?"

Raven paused and opened her eyes with more pain than irritation on her face. "Yes…and no… Its just… it hurts."

Happy put her hand on Raven's shoulder and smiled. "Its okay, we understand. Don't worry Raven, it'll turn out alright."

Raven smiled at Happy's sudden maturity. It occurred to her that she hadn't felt as much happiness as she usually would with the problem of the changeling always on her mind and that was affecting the pink emoticlone.

"Thanks guys. Sometimes I wonder why I ever get out of my own head," Raven said, smiling a little.

"Its because theres no Beast Boy in here!" Love replied.

Raven smirked and began meditating to leave Nevermore. As she did so, she faintly heard a hazy voice coming through as she returned to the real world.

_…ven…Rae…Raven… RAVEN!_

"RAVEN!?" Beast Boy shouted, waving his hands in his teammates' face. Raven closed her eyes tight as she adjusted to the light and when she opened them, she was greeted by gray gloves moving across her vision rapidly.

"What?" she said a little too harshly. For a brief second she realized that it must have seemed like she was ignoring him on purpose and she mentally growled at herself for being so stupid.

Beast Boy jumped back with surprise at the sudden response. "I, uh, sorry! I was just going to ask if I could have some of the hot water from your teapot, I was going to make some tofu and I needed water… yeah…" He said, nervously scratching the back of his head.

Raven looked at Beastboy, feeling a bit embarrassed. He didn't realized, but by scratching the back of his head he was unintentionally flexing his bicep and she couldn't focus quite right.

"Um, sure. Go ahead."

He grinned. "Sweet, thanks!" He ran around the island of the kitchen and crouched down to stuff his head into the cabinet that held his dehydrated tofu to find the packet that had been tossed into the back of the shelf. As his back was turned, Raven nervously looked over his back. Azar, he had gotten so much more muscular since they were kids. His back muscles rippled and shifted as he moved things around on the shelf and it wasn't long until her eyes began to travel down further…

_CRASH_

Beast Boy slammed his head into the roof of the cabinet with his shock at the crashing noise. He groaned for a moment before pulling his head out of the shelf and started rubbing a growing lump on his head.

"Owwww… what was that Rae?

Raven looked over at him, blushing slightly. Then she looked back down at her mug that she had dropped in her distraction.

"I, uh… just dropped my mug…"

Beast Boy got up from his position on the ground where he had been sitting after bumping his head. He picked up the broken pieces of the ceramic mug and turned them over in his hands.

"Dropping things? That doesn't sound like the cool, collected Raven I know," Beast Boy's laugh rang out clearly in the empty main ops room. Raven blushed with embarrassment and was thankful for her raised hood. Together they began picking up the pieces of the mug which had actually been shattered by her sudden spike in emotion rather than a her nonexistent butterfingers. After collecting all the pieces into Beast Boy's gloved hands, the two looked at what they had.

"This was your favorite mug, wasn't it?"

She gave a single nod. He looked down at the pieces with his brow furrowed.

"I don't think that even super glue can fix this…"

She nodded again. He looked her in the face with a wide grin.

"Well then we've got to go to the mall and find you a new one then! Come on, I'll drive!" Beast Boy said simply, grabbing her wrist and lightly tugging her towards the door. If she had meditated for any shorter than she had, Raven's face would have been cherry red from the blush that threatened to make her destroy all the other mugs in the tower. But thankfully, she _had_ meditated, so her cheeks were only tinted pink and her face was that of a girl who was shocked to having been whisked off somewhere in a hurry.

"Its… Its really okay Beast Boy, theres other mugs in the cabinet…" She stammered.

He turned to face her and gave her a lopsided smile with his fang sticking out.

"Come on, it'll be fun! I know you probably would rather not go to the mall, with me especially, but I promise I won't do anything annoying! I mean, how could this face _possibly_ annoy anyone?" He said, waggling his eyebrows back and forth as he struck a pose.

Raven almost giggled. Almost. What came out was more of an incredulous snort.

"Yeah. Okay, I'll give you that. You're the smoothest green bean I've ever met. Now if we're going to the mall, lets leave while theres still no crime alerts," Raven said in her trademark monotone as she pushed passed him to get to the garage, leaving him jogging to catch up to her fast pace.

"Haha, good one Rae."

* * *

Sooooooo, how is it so far? I'm planning on continuing, but you know how that goes... it may or may not get pushed off til later a few... a lot of times. I don't really know yet. A lot of this is just stuff that I imagine would happen in the Titan's tower on a regular basis, so don't take any of it as cannon even if I believe it could be. Read, review, and have a nice day! Week! Month! Whatever works best for you! (I'd go for the nice month if I were you)


	2. Mugs, Mugs everywhere

I'm a horrible person, I'm updating my new story before any of my old ones that people are probably annoyed waiting on... welp, what's done is done...

I don't own the Teen Titans.

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In honor of his 16th birthday and consequent passing of his drivers exam, Cyborg and Raven had put some work and money into restoring a 1969 Mustang for the changeling. It was difficult work but it was all worth it because she and Cyborg were given a reason to spend time together on a car without being barked at by Robin for wasting time. That, and Beast Boy's reaction made it even better.

It was all the better because he wasn't expecting a gift. They hadn't been able to finish by the time his birthday came around or even by the time he got his license since they had spent extra time adding special features and fun perks to the already gorgeous car. So when the green 16 year old came down to the garage a month after he had gotten his license to help out with a bird that had flown in, he suspected nothing.

What he found was a grinning and oil covered Cyborg and Raven standing proudly next to a sparkling, poppy green 1969 Mustang sitting in the middle of the garage among scattered tools and dirty rags. He was in complete and utter shock.

_"__Whoaaaaaaaaa! Dude, where__'__d you get that?!__"_

_ "__Just a little something me and Rae__'__ve been working on. You like?__"_

_ "__Like?! This is the coolest car I__'__ve ever seen! Did you restore this for a car show or something?__" __Beast Boy looked up at Cyborg, but switched his gaze to Raven as she walked towards him with her closed hand extended._

_ "__Whatcha got there Rae?__"_

_ She smirked and opened her hand to reveal a key with a green T Rex keychain attached. __"__I believe this is yours,__" __she said plainly._

_ Beast Boy was speechless. He took the key and turned it over in his hand with wide eyes._

_ "__Y-you__'__re kidding right? Cy, this is the meanest prank you__'__ve ever pulled on me!__"_

_ Cyborg ruffled the shorter boy__'__s hair. __"__Not this time. Happy belated birthday Grass Stain.__"_

_ Beast Boy looked over to the stairwell, finally noticing that Robin and Starfire had followed him down. Robin had a wide grin on his face and held a video camera out in front of him while Starfire finally let loose on the giggles she had been restraining. His shocked face turned to one of pure joy. He turned back to Raven and Cyborg._

_ "__You guys are seriously the best!__" __Beast Boy yelled, grabbing Cyborg around the waist and bear hugging him tightly._

_ "__No big deal, buddy. I think you__'__re forgetting someone__…" __the cybernetic teen said suggestively._

_ Beast Boy blushed a little and turned to Raven. __"__I didn__'__t forget, don__'__t worry.__"_

_ "__Happy Birthday, Beast Boy,__" __she said softly, with one of her rare, small smiles._

_ He immediately pulled her into a soft hug, making sure not to hold on too tightly in order to respect her discomfort with physical contact._

_ "__Thank you,__" __he whispered in her ear as he pulled away. They stood facing each other, both feeling slightly awkward until Beast Boy returned his attention to his new car, which he was intent on exploring every bit of. As Cyborg led Beast Boy through all the features of his car, Robin recorded the moment on his camera and Starfire hugged the Boy Wonder gleefully, Raven watched the whole moment unravelling on her own from her spot near the right mirror. It was a moment she knew she would never forget, especially when Beast Boy insisted on taking her on a test drive around the island at a speed that would have been illegal anywhere else._

This memory ran through her head as she climbed into the poppy green car. It felt good to be able to use something that she had made rather than walk through the ashes of something she had destroyed for a change. She faintly smiled, an expression that Beast Boy noticed from his spot in the driver's seat but decided not to comment on. She might return to her blank face and deny it if he mentioned it at all. Instead, he just gave his own lopsided grin for a reason unknown to the demoness and turned the key in the ignition, the green T Rex swaying back and forth in rhythm with the purr of the engine. They stayed in comfortable silence together as Beast Boy drove through the underground tunnel that led from Titan's island to the mainland of Jump City. Cyborg had commissioned it some time around the time he began working on the T Car so that he could show off his car rather than just driving it around the island. The silence continued on even through town a little ways, but quiet like this had long since lost the discomfort it used to have. They felt comfortable enough around each other now that they didn't need words, much like how sitting in silence with a family member is not weird at all, it feels natural. As the changeling parked his car in the mall parking lot, as far away from any other cars as he could to save his "baby" from any irresponsible drivers, he finally broke the silence.

"So, I was thinking that we should start with the Mug Emporium, and then maybe some of the more general stores. We can find a really cool one!" Beast Boy said enthusiastically as he opened Raven's door for her.

"Sure, why not."

They walked the long distance to the entrance of the mall in relative silence, both noticing the weird looks they got from passersby. Both were unaware that the other was noticing the same thing and just assumed that they were seeing things.

In the first store, the one dedicated to mugs and mugs alone, they looked through the whole store, still receiving odd looks from the other patrons, but paying no attention. Beast Boy kept finding green mugs, or ones with funny phrases on them, but of course, Raven refused all of them. She on the other hand, would only look at the blank, single color mugs, all in purple, blue or black. Beast Boy would not allow her to even think about those options. So, they moved on to the next place.

After searching through all the general stores in the mall, they had had no luck. They had only spent money on a purple cat that Beast Boy had insisted on getting for her in a claw game in the arcade and two vanilla ice cream cones they had bought to cool down. At that point, the two sat on a cement bench in the middle of the mall, licking their ice cream cones and watching the people, who they still noticed watching them.

"Man, this sucks. Finding the perfect mug is impossible!" Beast Boy said, flailing his free arm in the air. The movement startled Raven as the arm barely missed her head, and she jerked her ice cream cone lightly into her nose as she was taking a taste. Moving the ice cream cone back, she looked down at her nose cross eyed and brow furrowed, now with a glob of vanilla ice cream on the end of her nose. Beast Boy looked over at her and laughed. She frowned at him.

"It's not that funny. Now I need to go back to the store and get napkins, and I'm going to be walking around a mall looking ridiculous," She said, getting up.

"No need, I got it," Beast Boy said, reaching over. Before she could protest, he had wiped the ice cream off of her nose with his finger and licked the ice cream off his finger. The both blushed brightly, looking each other in the eye as they both thought about what had just occurred and how close they still were. Beast Boy moved away quickly to the other side of the bench.

"Heh, sorry, Rae… I'm not sure why I did that…" Beast Boy said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Its Raven…"

"Oh, yeah… sorry RaVEN…" A truly awkward silence followed as they both tried to look anywhere but at each other and were both positive that people were indeed looking at them now. As Beast Boy's eyes wandered he noticed a Paint-a-Cup studio a little ways away.

"Hey! Raven, look over there! We can make our own perfect mug! Lets go!" Beast Boy said excitedly. He grabbed her wrist and began dragging her towards the shop. She ran along as fast as she could manage to keep up with her eager friend, tossing the rest of her ice cream into a garbage can as she went. What had she got herself into allowing him to drag her here?

Beast Boy opened the door for her, and she walked in. The sound of the bell attached to the door tinkled quietly and the girl at the desk looked up from her magazine disinterestedly. She was a year or two younger than them and her body language showed it. The teenage girl looked Raven up and down with one eyebrow raised before quickly moving onto Beast Boy with a much more interested gaze.

Raven didn't exactly know why, but she was annoyed with how the cashier girl was looking at Beast Boy. He of course, was looking at the wall of shelves holding the un-painted ceramics with his brows furrowed and his tongue sticking out in concentration on finding the right mug, completely oblivious of the attention he was getting. Raven narrowed her eyes as the girl brightened significantly when Beast Boy came over to the sales desk. He set to different mugs on the desk.

"We'd like to paint these two please!" He said cheerfully. The sales girl rung up the purchase on the register, all the while batting her eyelashes and twirling her ponytail. Raven looked down at the two mugs and then up at Beast Boy quizzically.

"Two?"

"Yeah, I couldn't choose between the two, and I figured we can both make one and see which one you like better after they're finished!" he said, picking up both and carrying them to a table. She followed him but stopped on the way to pick up some paints. Beast Boy had grabbed some paints as well and sat down at the table with his paintbrush, holding the brush out towards his mug with one eye closed in what he probably though was an artist's pose.

She looked down at the white ceramic mug, holding her paintbrush pensively. This mug had endless possibilities. She was almost afraid to start and mess the pure mug. She looked over to see what Beast Boy was doing and saw him staring at her. He looked away quickly, his cheeks dusted with pink.

"Uh, can I help you?"

"I, uh, was just trying to figure out how to paint it. I wanted… to see what you were doing?" he ended unconvincingly. She raised an eyebrow. She didn't quite believe him, but she would let it slide just this—

"AHA!" Beast Boy declared. He looked at her eagerly. Raven wasn't quite sure what to think and looked back at him, eyes wide. The changeling got some dark blue, green and lavender paint on his pallet and began painting green, vertical stripes.

_Of course, he would make his green._ She looked at the colors he was using. _Those others look kind of like__… __me?_

Then he started painting the spaces between the green the dark blue he had picked and she saw what he was doing. He was mixing her favorite colors with his to compromise. She knew what to do.

Starting with coating the whole outside of the cup with the black of her leotard. Beast Boy looked over at her mug.

"No way! You can't just have a single colored mug like that, I thought I told you that!?"

She simply smiled and kept painting. "Just wait."

After an hour of painting in silence, Raven looked up at Beast Boy's mug, which was just about done. He had done a rather good job despite some blotchy paint in places. The mug was dark blue and green striped with lavender coating the inside. It actually looked quite nice in her opinion. She looked down at her own mug. She had painted it black with a yellow belt that had round red gems like her uniform had. The inside of the mug was green to mimic Beast Boy's idea of combining their colors. She smiled.

"Whoa, yours is like, perfect!" Beast Boy said ogling at the mug with awe.

"I think I like yours better," she replied. He looked at her like she was crazy.

"WHY?! This one is so cool!" he practically yelled, his voice cracking at his outburst. He snorted a little and she put a hand over her mouth to hide her giggles.

"Heh, wow, that hasn't happened in a while…" he said, looking down at the table sheepishly.

"No, it hasn't, has it?" Raven said, still chuckling a little. She was so glad that she had become more free with her emotions so that chuckling was not an uncommon occurrence. It felt good to be able to express herself without having to justify it to her friends.

Beast Boy carefully picked up both mugs so not to smudge the paint.

"Well, to make up for that awkward moment there, I'm just going to take these and give them to the lady. Be right back!" He called over his shoulder.

Raven watched him maneuver through the tables, careful not to mess up the mugs. She realized how much he had grown. And then a little sing-song voice in her head began murmuring something about love and pink dusted her cheeks.

_Is this what love is? Does he love me? He spent the whole day with me just looking for __"__the perfect mug__"… __I__'__m sure he had more he wanted to do with his day, I mean, its him. Of course he had something better to do than go on a pointless shopping trip with creepy demoness__… __No, he probably just feels bad for me, I can__'__t read too much into this. I can__'__t put myself out there again, I can__'__t handle something like that again__… __I can__'__t get my heart broken again__…_

Beast Boy came back to Raven with only a bit of paint on his finger tips, successful enough in his mind, and was shocked to see her deep in thought. He stayed back a bit longer to watch her. She was subconsciously nibbling on her lower lip. He swallowed a little and then walked up behind her. She was leaning slightly on her hand with her elbow on the table and she looked up when he approached.

"When will they be done?" she asked. Beast Boy looked at the paper he was given.

"Looks like a week. We can pick them up on Tuesday," He replied. She nodded and stood up.

"Well, it looks like we can go now. Shall we?" Raven said, motioning to the door. Beast Boy opened it for her.

"After you."

It was probably just because it was on her mind, but every little thing he did made her question whether or not he felt the same as she did. She was becoming paranoid.

_Relax Rae, its just a crush. It__'__ll go away soon. It__'__s just a crush__… __right? Wait__… __did I just refer to myself as Rae?_

At the car, Beast Boy opened the passenger door for her and then tried to run around the front to get to his seat. Try is the key word. On the way, he happened to trip on the curb, making Raven snicker and Beast Boy blush with embarrassment. But even as he was tripping and panic was crossing his face before he caught himself, she couldn't help but think about how grown up he had become, how attractive his face really was despite the green skin and hair which only made him cuter to her.

_Oh Azar, I__'__ve really fallen haven__'__t I? This is more than a crush__…_

Beast Boy made it to the drivers seat and he was still laughing nervously when he got in the car.

"Heh, I don't know whats wrong with me today, I've been acting as awkward as I did as a kid…"

"I don't think you'll ever grow up too much in my mind," Raven replied, smirking.

"Hey! I have too grown up! I've stopped making horrible jokes, I haven't played nearly as many video games, I'm taller than you, AND I've got some pretty sweet muscle if I do say so myself," Beast Boy said, flexing as many muscles as he could when he listed off the last bit.

Raven snorted. "Pffft, no you haven't, you play just as much as you used to, I guess you got me on third thing, and…" she looked over at him fleetingly before quickly looking away, embarrassed. "Yeah… I guess you got me on the last one too…"

It was Beast Boy's turn to be embarrassed. He had said that just to mess with her, he hadn't expected her to actually respond to it. He tried to look her in the face, but she had turned to the window to avoid his gaze. He bit the inside of his cheek in frustration.

_Why do I keep doing this? Why can__'__t I just stop being so awkward; I__'__m 18 for crying out loud! Well, almost. It__'__s still three weeks away__… __but still__…_ _Maybe my birthday with make me less awkward__…__? That__'__s at least somewhat logical right?_

Beast Boy coughed and started the car. As they pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road, Raven gained the courage to start looking around the car. He had kept it relatively clean to her amazement, but there were a few receipts, some napkins and a t shirt that seemed to have been tossed into the back seat.

As they made a turn, Raven squinted into the sun and decided to put down the sun shade on the roof. When her vision had cleared, she saw that there was a photograph stuck to the inside of the sunshade with gum. She tugged on the corner of the picture and it came off. The gum was still reasonably fresh so it came off with relative ease. She looked at the photo and smiled.

The Titans had taken many photos over the years, and until two years ago, Beast Boy had never gotten Raven to smile while taking one with him. However, on the fateful day of March 19th as shown by they date written on the bottom of the photo, they were both smiling in a picture together.

Cyborg had gotten a new camera attachment and was testing it out on Beast Boy to see if he could snap a photo of the changeling in an in-between stage between human and animal. Raven had been reading and was becoming annoyed with the volume of their task so she was about to snap at them when she looked up to see Beast Boy directly in front of her as a bug eyed pug, panting heavily and cross eyed. Her emotions had been difficult to control that day and this was too much for her. Starting with a giggle bubbling up from her lips, her laugh became a full on, out of control laugh which shocked both of her male companions. Beast Boy shape shifted back into a human and began laughing as well while begging Cyborg to take a picture.

And this was the photo she held in her hands now.

Raven smiled as she looked down at the picture; she was almost doubled over with her uncontrolled laughter and Beast Boy was smiling from ear to ear, giggling as well. There were tears in the corners of her eyes which were almost closed. She couldn't remember ever laughing so hard.

Beast Boy had been tense ever since they had left the parking lot. It was impossible for him to know what Raven was thinking and he was afraid of what she thought of him. When he finally built up the courage to look at her again, he relaxed to see her gazing at the photo of them he had stuck to the sun shade. She had a faint smile on her face and he wondered if she was remembering when the photo was taken. He relaxed his shoulders and glanced at the clock. It was almost 9pm. He smiled. He couldn't believe he had spent the whole day with Raven without her snapping at him once.

_Does that mean she likes me? Gah, stop reading into this so much, I__'__ve probably just matured enough that I don__'__t make her hate every moment she spends with me__…_

They reached the tower garage and Beast Boy killed the ignition.

"Okie dokie, looks like we're home," Beast Boy said slowly.

"Looks like it," Raven said plainly, getting out of the car.

Beast Boy tapped the steering wheel with his fingers as he watched Raven walk past the hood of the car. He hopped out of the car when she reached the stairwell and trotted after her retreating figure.

"Hey! So, Rae—"

"Raven."

"Hehe, right. Raven. So, do you wanna come to movie night tonight? You can pick the movie this time if you come!" Beast Boy said after catching up with her.

"I think I'll pass, I need to meditate some more. I missed my usual times when we went to the mall so…" Raven began fidgeting a little. Beast Boy raised an eyebrow. Raven didn't fidget. Maybe he shouldn't push it, it seemed like it had taken a lot out of her going to the mall with him for as long as she did. But the romantic inside of him was still hoping for her to fall asleep on his shoulder in the middle of the movie so he continued to plead.

"Come on, Raven! You haven't been to a movie night in so long!" Beast Boy reasoned. After a short pause he continued. "You can sit next to me," the changeling said suggestively, waggling his eyebrows, which elicited a quiet giggle from Raven.

"I don't know…" Raven looked down, weighing her options. On one hand, she really did need to meditate. Her emotions had been going haywire since she left that morning. On the other, she really did miss movie nights, and here was her crush pleading with her to go and to sit next to him no less. Beast Boy seemed to notice her hesitation and he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Its not the same without you, Rae. Please? For me?" He said with puppy dog eyes. This was all he had left in his reserves, his logic and flirty joking had already been used. If this didn't work, he had failed.

She looked up at his face and laughed a little at his begging puppy face. He always knew how to get to her in the end. She decided to let the nickname slide, just this once.

"Okay, Beast Boy."

He grinned and held out his hand, which she took tentatively, and he eagerly rushed up the stairs with her in tow to announce that he had finally returned the demoness to the Titan's sacred movie nights.

* * *

Shweet. R&amp;R and have a nice day!


	3. Frozen or Beautiful?

As they walked into the main ops room, they drew the attention of the remaining three Titans, who had gathered together in preparation for movie night. Cyborg paused in his journey to the kitchen to get a soda to look at the tardy Titans. He glanced down at their still joined hands and gave Beast Boy a big toothy grin. The changeling became flustered for a moment as he let go of Raven's wrist and went to the kitchen to grab a slice of leftover pizza and berate Cyborg.

Raven, by comparison was unaffected, too deep in thought to care what her teammates thought. She had been about to get herself some tea, but didn't want to interrupt Beast Boy's poorly hidden whisper-yelling at Cyborg, who was unable to hold back his giggles. Instead, she opted for the easier option of sitting on the end of the couch, a few seats down from Robin and Starfire. She glanced over at the couple; Starfire was leaning on Robin's shoulder and their fingers were interlaced. She caught Starfire's eye and the Tamaranian pointedly looked at Beast Boy and back with a knowing smile. Raven tried to play it off like she was oblivious to Starfire's meaning by raising an eyebrow, but her blush gave her away. Starfire only smiled and returned to leaning against Robin's shoulder. Raven tried to reign in her imagination and think of which movie she would pick since Beast Boy had promised that she could decide.

Though she wasn't a huge fan of many of the popular movies for movie night, she wanted to pick a movie that they all would like. Horror was out of the question. The haunted house she had accidentally created the last time they watched one still haunted their nightmares. She hated all the action films they watched; too many explosions and ditzy girls. She glanced over at the shelf of movies and her eyes were drawn to the Disney section. Raven levitated off the couch and drifted over to the cabinet. Opening the door, she scanned the Disney Blu-rays they had. She picked up the first two on the shelf and looked down at them. Beauty and the Beast and Frozen. She chuckled at the irony of her choices. The two Disney movies that mirrored her situation the most.

Floating back to the couch with the movies, Raven waited for Cyborg and Beast Boy to get the snacks together before she asked the team's opinion on that night's movie. The boys returned to the couch with the largest bowl they could find filled with popcorn, multiple boxes of movie theater candy, five solo cups, a few bottles of soda and one deluxe bottle of mustard for Starfire. She raised her eyebrow with surprise that they expected to finish so much sugar and salt in one night. Beast Boy noticed her shock and merely chuckled. She noted that his joyful laugh had not changed even though his voice had and she smiled. Picking up the movies, Raven walked in front of the TV.

"I've narrowed my choice down to two movies. Beauty and the Beast or Frozen?" She said in her usual monotone.

Her teammates looked back and forth at the two boxes in her hands. Starfire was the first to speak up.

"I have not done the watching of the Beauty and the Beast in quite some time. I cast my vote for that option!" She said, taking a sip of mustard with her bendy straw.

"I guess I want to watch Frozen. Come on Star, we can have it on sing-along mode!" Cyborg said, trying to entice the alien princess into switching choices.

"Can we not also set that option on the Beauty and the Beast movie?"

"Well, yeah, but… theres no Olaf in Beauty and the Beast…" Cyborg mumbled, defeated. Robin looked back and forth between his girlfriend and his best friend and shrugged.

"I don't really know which I want to watch. I'll be good with whatever" he stated plainly.

"And that leaves the vote down to Beasty. Come on BB, you know you wanna watch some Frozen don'tcha?" Cyborg prodded. He nudged his friend's arm with his elbow, but Beast Boy ignored the motion for the most part. He was staring straight at Raven as if trying to understand her reasoning in choosing the movies. She could almost see the wheels turning in his head as he tried to figure out what it would each choice would mean to her. Just then his ear twitched as the water heater began to whistle. She was usually the only one to use it for tea, but it seemed that the others were using it to heat up water for cocoa. Beast Boy jumped up immediately.

"Uh, heh! Sounds like the water's done. I'll just make the cocoa while I decide," he said, boosting himself over the back of the couch with one arm to get away from expectant eyes of Starfire, Cyborg and herself, the former two having leaned towards him, pressuring him to choose their movie. He busied himself in the kitchen with mugs and cocoa packets.

_This is just a coincidence right? I mean, its gotta be, this is Raven we__'__re talking about. She couldn__'__t even stand me for the first few years we knew each other, she__'__s not just suddenly love me or anything. Geez, I__'__m probably reading into this way too much__…_

The changeling had five of the tower's identical grey mugs lined up and he smiled as he poured the contents of five cocoa packets into each respectively. They would have to have another movie night when their creations from Paint-a-Mug returned. Then they wouldn't have to use such plain, boring mugs. He tore the corner off of the last cocoa packet and reached for the mug on the end of the row. But he was rather shocked to be interrupted by the back of a small hand. Before he looked, he knew who it was, but he looked anyway.

"Uh, hey, Rae," Beast Boy said as the butterflies in his stomach fluttered. He noticed his hand was still lingering on hers and he retracted it quickly. He thought he saw the corners of her mouth twitch and perhaps a little pink on her cheeks under the shadow of her hood, but he must have imagined it because it was gone a moment later. She lifted the mug from the counter where he had set it and cradled it in both hands towards her chest.

"I was planning on tea; your cocoa packets are too sweet for my tastes," She said simply, moving towards the water heater on the opposite counter.

"Oh, uh, no worries! I'll just add this to mine. Makes it more chocolatey… but I guess you wouldn't like that… yeah…" He trailed off awkwardly and started watching her absentmindedly. He wished he could be as collected as she was, but instead he was a big green ball of awkward.

"So did you pick a movie?"

Beast Boy was startled from his thoughts with her question and he hurriedly tried to busy himself when he realized he was staring at her.

"I, uh… not yet. They're both just so good, you know?" He said, flustered. What was it he needed to do? Oh yeah, hot water. Which Raven was conveniently using. He turned around and saw that she was still looking the other way, reaching for her box of tea packets, and he had panicked for no reason. He sighed. He was glad she was oblivious to this kind of thing because he was certain he was an open book. The corner of his mouth twitched as he realized his joke of sorts. He was a book and Raven liked to read… in hindsight, it wasn't very funny. She turned around to face him with her now steaming mug of tea. He smelled her familiar vanilla scent mixed with the smell of her tea leaves, which alone was enough to make him a little crazy without the fact that she had just put her hood down.

"Well, pick fast. Unless you want star bolts and cybeams to start flying," Raven said, glancing over at the couch. Cyborg and Starfire were arguing over which of the two movies was better while Robin, avoiding conflict, had just returned with a few blankets because Starfire had mentioned being cold a bit ago.

"Don't worry, I'll be done soon!" Beast Boy said, reaching around her for the water heater. The action turned out to be poorly planned because he almost growled at the closeness of her scent. Luckily she didn't notice and was going to stand beside Robin to watch the argument. Beast Boy shook his head at his own stupidity and went to start pouring water into the cups, stirring the mixtures with a spoon simultaneously.

_Alright. So, movie__… __Normally I would pick Frozen for Cy, but__… __What does RAVEN want me to pick? Frozen, the girl who__'__s isolated because of her powers learns that she can control them with love instead of fear, and then her hyper sister ends up with the dude. And Beauty and the Beast, the girl who__'__s a little different and likes to read gets swept off her feet by the Beast that she originally doesn__'__t like and he ends up being pretty cool. Wow, those match up with our situation in so many ways its not even funny._

Beast Boy turned and opened a cupboard and grabbed the bag of marshmallows from it, in the back of his mind feeling proud that he could finally reach that shelf. He started dropping marshmallows into the mugs as he thought.

`_Well, controlling powers with love is cool, but Elsa doesn__'__t end up with the guy, while in Beauty and the Beast, the girl ends up with not only the dude, but a dude that starts out as a beast. Thats pretty close to how I want things to end up__… __so I guess that one__'__s the winner._

Coming out of his daydream with his decision, Beast Boy realized that he'd dropped a mound of marshmallows into the same mug. He raised his eyebrows, but let it slide; he'd give that to Starfire. He added marshmallows to the other mugs and carried the them down, two in each hand.

"But Frozen has not only a love story, it has sisterly love thrown in there too! Not to mention some plot twists and significantly better graphics!" Cyborg stated, disbelieving that Starfire wouldn't change her decision.

"However the Beauty and the Beast movie has also the love story! The characters are most charming and their transformations are the clever as well!" Starfire argued. Robin and Raven continued to watch, their gazes turning to Beast Boy pleadingly to end the argument. The green man set the mugs on the table and tried to get the attention of the two.

"Cut it out guys! It doesn't matter which one is better, 'cause I pick Beauty and the Beast!" He said, noting Starfire's squeal of delight and Cyborg's face palm, but all the while trying to gauge Raven's reaction. She seemed to be her normal calm self, but he thought she might have brightened just a bit at his movie choice. That, or she was just happy that Starfire and Cyborg had stopped fighting.

"Joy!" Starfire clapped her hands and snuggled into the pink blanket Robin handed her. The boy wonder sat down next to her as she opened the blanket for him to share. Beast Boy turned his attention to Cyborg, who had crossed his arms and was grumbling to something to himself about Olaf. He handed his robotic friend the first mug of cocoa.

"Aw, don't be like that Cy. It's a classic!"

"Yeah, yeah, just play the movie."

"And set the movie to the Sing-a-long setting for friend Cyborg! He expressed the interest in the singing earlier!" Starfire piped in.

Beast Boy passed out the rest of the cocoas, grabbed a dark green blanket and the remote and flopped down on the couch, much to the irritation of the empath who had already sat down and now had a green gremlin inside her personal bubble. Oblivious, Beast Boy set up the movie. He turned to Raven with a cheeky grin on his face.

"Don't fall asleep, Rae."

"If I wanted to sleep I wouldn't be here now. Try worrying about yourself," She responded plainly, her irritation thinly veiled. This amused Cyborg, who failed miserably to contain his snicker from the other side of the changeling.

"Ooh, B, she got you good!"

Beast Boy sunk into his seat on the couch, his childish pout illuminated by the green light from the preview screen flashing across the television. Everyone's cocoa was on the table, mostly forgotten.

Raven looked over the faces of her teammates while she waited for the movie to actually begin. Starfire and Robin were snuggled together under the pink blanket. Starfire was enthralled by the colorful preview to an older movie that played across the screen, but Robin was more intent on gazing affectionately at his girlfriend, amused at her fascination. They were both radiating happiness and affection that clouded her mind a bit so she quickly moved on from them. Cyborg was sitting on the opposite end of the couch, keeping a bit of a distance between himself and Beast Boy. He looked comfortable with his arms draped across the back of the couch and eating the occasional sugary or salty snack. His aura was definitely more relaxed than he had been in a while, probably due to the low crime rate recently.

Beast Boy, though she had tried to ignore him, had become too attention worthy to escape her notice any longer. Though she would never admit it, Raven _did_ enjoy having Beast Boy around, and the close proximity was mildly annoying but mainly because it made her stomach flutter nervously. She hated that feeling.

Without looking directly at him so not to give him the fuel to taunt her about checking him out, she noticed the pout he had been trying so hard to keep on his face was fading as his anticipation for the movie grew. Now, even with his bottom lip jutted out and his fang peeking from his lip, he looked excited because of his widened, bright eyes. She hoped she hadn't hurt his feelings too much with her biting commentary. In retrospect, she had begun being even more sarcastic and critical of him since she had started feeling different around him to try to hide her budding emotion. As the Disney castle in all its splendor played across the screen, the familiar music that made children's (and Starfire's) hearts soar, Raven tore her attention from Beast Boy to the screen.

She really did enjoy this movie. As she watched, she couldn't help but marvel at how similar her situation was to the movie. She had only recently noticed the connections that involved Beast Boy as well, but that was obviously not why she chose this as an option. Obviously. It's not like she picked the two Disney movies that she related to most to get him to choose, hopefully subconsciously, whether there was a possibility of them being together or whether the love that she felt was strictly platonic. It's not like she _knew_ that Starfire and Cyborg would argue over the movies, Robin would stay neutral to stay at peace with both his best friend and his girlfriend, and the decision would be left to a certain green animorph. No no, of course not. Only crazy people planned out things like that in a few moments. Or desperate empaths. Oh Azar, she was in deep.

She supposed it was understandable though; he was indeed Raven's first crush and she wasn't one to throw emotion around wildly. She was no flimsy girl who's interest would flit from one man to another with every passing moment. Her emotion was to strong for that. Which was why he could never know.

Shaking off her thoughts to watch the movie, she frowned in disgust; both at the fact that she had spent so long thinking about _him_ and because she had missed the whole beginning of the movie. Her frown deepened when she realized she had come in smack dab in the middle of a peak in Gaston's attempted assertion of male dominance. Her mind briefly flitted to Adonis and recalling that the end of the movie mirrored that a bit as well. She shivered and as she tried to pull her cape around her, felt it catching. Glancing to her left, she saw that the already drifting off Beast Boy had managed to sit on it when he flopped onto the couch. Eyebrow twitching in a combination of irritation and confusion at her predicament, she tried to think of a solution to her problem. He was fully asleep now as far as she could see and he was slowly careening towards her. After a bit, his face landed upon her shoulder, the whole side of his body pressed into hers.

Raven thanked Azar for the almost complete darkness as she had begun to blush profusely. And she had yet to solve her problem of being cold. The changeling's body began to fully tilt towards her and she felt something soft brush her knee. She looked down and saw his blanket-clad knee tapping hers. Did she dare? A shudder of combined cold and dread was sent down her spine. It concerned her how much she wanted something like this so she hesitated. But a few brightly colored emoticlones got their way in the end and her thin hand cautiously reached down and pulled at the edge of the blanket. Moving slowly so not to disturb the annoyingly adorable animorph resting on her shoulder, she managed to pull the blanket over her legs so it was encasing them both. She turned her attention back to the screen and began getting into the movie, Timid's thoughts of how hard this was going to be to explain when the lights came on only lingering in the back of her consciousness.


	4. Awkward

In a way, Beast Boy got his wish. But when you're a green shapeshifter on a team of aliens and humans with above average fighting abilities, things generally don't go as planned.

He was startled awake by a primal roar echoing through the room. Though he didn't jump, his eyes shot open wide, revealing the slitted green eyes of the beast within. When it registered that he was watching a movie, he slowly fluttered his eyelids and upon the fifth blink was back to human irises.

The first thing he noticed with frustration, was that he had fallen asleep quite early on in the movie and had missed most of it. He liked that movie, it gave him hope for his own humanity, and now he had just missed all of it except the fight scene between the Beast and Gaston that had just woken him up. He tried to remember what had happened today to make him tired and with a jolt the memories of spending all day at the mall with the resident empath returned to his tired mind. No wonder he was exhausted, he had to keep his energy level at its max around her to keep from being overcome with her negativity. But oddly enough she had been in relatively good spirits the entire trip and he had been forcing himself to bounce off the walls for no reason other than out of habit. He smiled as he recalled this. She was getting so much more control over her emotions and after all these years was finally able so show some. She seemed genuinely happy, or at least not sour, about going shopping with him and when they painted the mugs Raven had seemed to be trying very hard to be friendly.

Things like this were what he lived for.

As he watched more of the movie, the fight between the Beast and the man becoming more desperate, the changeling snuggled into his pillow, hugging it to his body tighter. He took a deep breath and smelled a familiar scent of vanilla and tea leaves…wait. He hadn't brought out any pillows… and his pillows _certainly_ didn't smell that nice…

Beast Boy shut his eyes tightly, wincing, and then glanced upwards, knowing already what he would find. But what he saw surprised him slightly.

Raven, instead of glaring at him for latching onto her arm and using her as a pillow, was watching the movie intently. She'd seen this already, hadn't she? Perhaps she was just deeply engaged in the action. In any case, the demoness was staring at the screen and with her free arm hugging a bright green blanket to her chest. A green blanket? He looked down and winced again. They were sharing a blanket too. He mentally cursed as he realized that he was probably sitting on her cloak. Not that he wasn't loving snuggling with Raven, but he wasn't looking forward to her pummeling him or the rest of the team's teasing.

He wondered if she even noticed, but she was Raven! She had to have noticed at least him hugging her arm. Maybe she didn't mind? Of course she would, she probably just didn't want to do anything to draw attention to herself. Knowing her, she'd be just as embarrassed as she would be angry. He frowned. All he was to his team was an annoying green blob of embarrassment. Why did they keep him around anyway? Its not like he contributed anything to the team other than stupid one liners. Probably just charity, its not like anyone else would take a scrawny green kid.

He took a moment from his self-bashing to look back to the television. The Beast had fallen. He looked away quickly. This part always made him tear up and he was already in a compromising situation; there was no way he was letting Cyborg tease him for cuddling with Raven _and_ for crying in a Disney movie. He tried to look at anything else but the screen, the Beast's supposed death hit too close to home for his tastes.

But as Belle cried over the Beast and finally admitted that she loved him, his eyes became glued to the screen. If he didn't know the end, he would have thought that her last minute proclamation of love was tragic. Instead, he smiled as the Beast returned to the man he had been long ago. He shook his head lightly as, for a moment, the prince's skin seemed to be green and Belle's hair flashed purple. He could only hope.

The credits began to roll and an audible creaking was heard as Cyborg got up from the couch to get the lights. Starfire giggled at the movie's conclusion and began chattering happily about the ending to Robin, who merely smiled down at her and nodded. Raven had released her death grip on the blanket and yawned. With panic, Beast Boy realized that life was about to get complicated. At that moment the lights came on.

Raven tried to stretch her arms as she became aware of the stiffness in her body from sitting for so long. When her left arm refused to obey, she remembered the green 18 year old hugging arm. She looked down, hoping she would find a way to dislodge him before anything bad happened. What she didn't expect, was to see emerald green eyes staring back at her. The two blinked at each other for a moment before Cyborg returned to the couch.

"I guess that was good, but Frozen woulda been—" Cyborg trailed off as he approached the confused empath and the panicking changeling. He crossed his arms and a wide grin split his face.

"Well alright! Its about time you two!"

"NO! This isn't— we weren't—"

"No need to explain, grass stain. Rob, pay up!"

A very red faced Raven finally found the courage to open her mouth.

"You were awake the whole time?! Beast Boy, you were awake the whole time and I allowed this because I didn't want to wake you up!" Raven yelled, her face a mixture of confusion, anger and embarrassment.

Beast Boy's face visibly darkened as an intense blush turned his green skin a brownish color.

"I-I… It wasn't… I didn't want to freak you out! I don't know, I thought you didn't notice or something!" The changeling stuttered out. He had disentangled his arms from around hers and scooted a whole seat-cushion away from her as he prepared for her to lash out. And indeed she did, but not quite how he expected. The mugs on the table that had once held cocoa all proceeded to shatter at the same moment, making the whole team fall silent and look at the empath. Raven glanced at all the faces turned towards her and then suddenly dissipated in a black swirl of energy. Beast Boy was now the center of attention and his flustered appearance had not left him.

"I swear, I didn't do anything to make her that upset!" He practically shouted, waving his hands outstretched hands to shield himself from any possible accusations. Cyborg merely shook his head at the changeling in front of him.

"Well, you obviously did something. I've never seen Raven that upset except for when that whole mess with Trigon was happening," the cybernetic man said pointedly.

"I am confused. Usually the act of snuggling is welcomed when two are doing the dating. Are friend Raven and friend Beast Boy not participating in such actions?" Starfire piped in.

"DATING?! Nonononononono! We're just friends, Star! I mean, dating? Really? We would never— We couldn't! Right?!" Beast Boy said, far too quickly.

"Riiiiiiiight. That wasn't suspicious, green bean," Cyborg said, his grin returning and his eyebrow raised.

"Maybe they aren't, Cyborg. You don't need to bother him about it."

"Shut up, Rob! You just don't wanna have to pay the fifty bucks!"

"Cut it out, Cy! Robin's right! Why are you so— wait… you were _betting_ on us?!"

The two older male team members froze at this statement. They glanced at each other and Robin nodded. Cyborg cleared his throat.

"Yeah, we were betting on you two. 'Cause this so called _detective_ can't see the obvious attraction between you two. I know it's gonna happen some day, so I put money on it. Is that a problem for you?" Cyborg said with so much sarcasm in his voice that it rivaled Raven's.

"Uh, yeah! Just the fact that you even think there's something between us is crazy!"

"But you have become the better friends and both have begun to act strangely around each other. Is that not a symptom of the crush?"

Beast Boy couldn't argue with her logic, he had been certain that his crush was obvious, much to his mortification. However, apparently Raven had noticed nothing of it which was surprising considering her empathy. So, he merely fell back on the couch, groaning and digging the heels of his palms into his eye sockets.

"Geez. Guys, I've got it bad," He admitted, still covering his face.

"Yeah B, we're passed that," Cyborg said, looking down at the changeling.

"Well, what do I do!? She hates me even more after this!" Beast Boy threw his hands in the air in exasperation and let them drop so that one was handing over the back of the couch and the other trailed the floor. He looked at each of them in turn when Starfire opened her mouth.

"Does she not also have the crush on you? She was not very angry when she realized that you were not asleep, otherwise, she would have used her magic and thrown you from the tower as she used to, yes?"

"Yeah, thats right! She used to chuck you out the window, remember? We had to replace that window something like six times last year," Cyborg recalled excitedly. "She probably wouldn't care about your safety if she didn't like you at least a little."

"Yeah, okay, she doesn't _hate_ me. So what, doesn't mean she likes me that way," Beast Boy reasoned, glaring up at his friend.

"Fine, don't believe me. But lets consult the 'detective' around here. Robin?" Cyborg said, putting air quotes around "detective". "What was unusual about Raven's behavior before she left?"

"She was acting considerably more flustered than usual, very confused, and exhibiting traits of a cornered animal. But that doesn't necessarily mean she has feelings for him. She could have just been spooked by the compromising situation she was in," Robin said, almost mechanically. Cyborg slapped a robotic hand to his forehead.

"Geez man, no wonder it took you so long to finally ask Starfire out, those are all key signs of a crush! Star, its a good thing you pretty much shoved your love in his face or he never would've figured it out!" Cyborg said mockingly, ignoring Robin crossing his arms and a pout forming on his reddening face as Starfire giggled and leaned her head on his shoulder.

"But, Raven's complicated! Even if she liked me, she'd just deny it so she could 'protect me' or something!" Beast Boy drew air quotes as he sat up. "She's too selfless for her own good…" he mumbled.

"Just keep trying. Make sure she definitely knows how much you like her and she won't be able to deny it to herself." Cyborg put a hand on Beast Boy's shoulder.

The green teen shrugged away from the gesture and vaulted over the back of the couch.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'm going to bed, g'night guys." With that, he walked through the automatic doors and they swished shut behind him. Cyborg turned to Robin.

"If you couldn't see Starfire's love until, what, last month, its gonna take you until those two are getting married to get Raven's emotions through your thick skull. Seriously though, how could you not see right through this bundle of sunshine?" Cyborg asked, motioning towards Starfire. The Tamaranian giggled once more and planted a kiss on her irritated boyfriend's cheek before floating off to her room for the night.


	5. Deprivation

Woo! 'nother chapter! So... after looking back at a the first chapter, I realized I had intended on switching Robin to Nightwing and making him and Starfire still unofficial... apparently I reverted to what felt natural right after that first chapter. Oops. So at some point I'll probably go back and fix that but for now I'm going to move on with the story. Enjoy!

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Raven desperately needed to meditate. She had needed to meditate since she woke up that morning and that need only escalated as the day went on. The mall had been fine, but the freely flowing emotions of all the many people there bombarding her with their emotional carelessness was annoying to block out. When they returned to the tower, a movie seemed like a safe idea, but she hadn't counted on arguing with her emotions the entire time. She realized afterwards that she hadn't seen pretty much any of the movie though she had been staring intently at the screen because she had drifted into her mindscape. And when she came out of her trancelike situation, she was completely unprepared to have a handsome, green gremlin attached to her arm nor was she prepared for her team to witness the compromising situation. All in all, that night, meditation was more crucial than sleep. Should she go to bed while she was like this, she would not only have some overly emotional dreams that she would feel embarrassed about in the morning, but the force of these emotions would probably tear her room right out of the west wall of the tower.

So, that's what she planned to do. When she teleported to her room, she immediately lit some of the vanilla scented candles that she used so often. Lifting off into the air, she began what would become a six hour meditation session just to settle the emotions that Beast Boy had overexcited.

This proved to be a horrible mistake.

At the bright and early 6:30 am, they received their first crime alert in a week. Though it was merely a bank robbery by a nameless thief, it was annoying for the sleepy Titans (minus Robin, who's alarm clock had gone off right at that time anyway and he most likely popped right out of bed, fully ready for the day like the insanely efficient leader he was). Cyborg was not heavily affected, as most of him was robotic, but as he pinned the robber's arms to his sides, the cybernetic man was stifling yawns. Starfire similarly flew slightly slower and lower to the ground as she evacuated the bank tellers and as soon as the crime was settled, Beast Boy curled up in a corner as a cat and fell asleep. However, none had it worse than Raven.

Having not slept at all and merely was shocked from her meditation by the alarm, Raven not only opted out of flying to the crime scene and joined Cyborg in the T-car, but when shielding her teammates from gunshots, her shields almost fell as she faded in and out of consciousness.

So, while Robin settled the case with the police, Raven leaned against the still locked T-car, eyes closed and leaning her head back against the high-tech, blue and silver metal.

"So, a 12'o'clock movie night is too late for you, huh?"

Raven opened her eyes a sliver to view the green titan standing in front of her, looking down at her with amused, half-lidded eyes.

"Not exactly…" She replied, adverting her gaze. He tilted his head to the side in a way that mirrored that of a confused puppy and his smirking face turned to one of concern.

"Hey, are you okay?"

She sighed.

"…not exactly…"

"Rae… what's wrong?" The changeling put his hand on her shoulder and tried to shift so he could see her face. She flinched at the contact.

When one is tired, his or her senses are both heightened and dulled, making everything a bit confusing and drastically more funny, sad, or exciting. Because of her personified emotions, this was all too noticeable. With one touch, Happy and Love became hyper-excited, Timid and Embarrassment were extremely shaken, and Intelligence and Brave had all but disappeared. She bit her bottom lip and glanced up into his surprisingly close eyes. Looking into his forest green irises, Raven lost it. A dark portal materialized to swallow her up, leaving a very confused Beast Boy in her wake. He frowned, morphed into a pterodactyl, and flew in the direction of the tower.

When she reappeared in her room, she collapsed on the floor and clutched at her head as her powers created a whirlwind around her, catching a few of her books and loose papers in the swirling winds. She gritted her teeth as her emotions battled for control in her head. After a grueling five minutes her exhaustion got the better of her. Her emoticlones were either over-exhausted or returned to equilibrium. Struggling to keep her eyes open, Raven got up from the floor on wobbling legs and crawled into her bed, her hands trembling as she pulled at the covers.

_I guess sleep _is_ necessary for a demon… who knew…_

And then a knock at the door.

Raven groaned. Tentatively reaching out her emotional sensors, which proved to be more trouble than it was worth, she picked Beast Boy's emotional signature out from behind the door. The waves of worry and fear rolling off of him spiked her already increasing headache to the level of a migraine.

"Raven?" came the muffled voice from behind the door. She crawled out of her bed, steadying herself with one hand and clutching at her temple with the other. She paused a moment at the door to prepare herself from the bright lights of the hall and then sloppily slid the door open.

"What?" she replied harshly as she attempted to keep her wobbling knees from showing any sign of weakness. Beast Boy looked at her with concern, which turned to alarm with the glance at her whirlwind of a room.

"Rae… I mean Raven… What happened to you? Are you alright?!" Beast Boy said, attempting to enter her room and assess the damage. The hand that had cradled her head shot out and blocked his entry, the other hand still braced on the door to steady herself. She inwardly cursed herself for being so careless as to give him any hint of weakness.

"I'm fine."

"Well, obviously not! I'm pretty sure I haven't rubbed off on you enough that you would do _that_ to your room! I know you Raven. I saw that look in your eye before you teleported; you're in pain. And by the look of it, a lot," the changeling said, looking meaningfully down at her wobbling knees.

"I don't need your help, I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I'm all I've ever needed and all I'll ever need. Just because I have friends now, doesn't mean I need to burden them," Raven said, a bit more icily than she had intended.

"Come on, Rae, let me in."

"Don't call me that." Beast Boy frowned, his fang poking out a little farther than usual.

"Alright, if you won't let me in, I'm just gonna come in." He shoved the door, dislodging her hand. With the imbalance she was feeling, this motion brought Raven teetering backwards. She closed her eyes as the room spun and prepared to land on her rear. A landing that never occurred.

With his animal reflexes, Beast Boy's hand shot out and grabbed Raven's as she plummeted. Amethyst eyes met emerald ones and he knew her last defenses were spent. She looked at him with the eyes of a frightened puppy. He tugged her arm until it was across his shoulders and then proceeded to support her as they made slow progress to her bed, as he assumed she would object to being carried bridal style even in this weakened state.

"If you want to fool me, you might try changing your habits. Every time you insist on being alright, you're not," the green man said softly as he piled up pillows so that she could sit up.

"I didn't realize that I was so easy to read." He snorted incredulously.

"You're definitely not. I just pay too much attention," Beast Boy said almost to himself. Some color lighted upon both green and gray cheeks.

"Oh."

The two sat in silence as Beast Boy busied himself with making sure Raven would be comfortable. Raven, who had been looking down for the entirety of the process, finally looked up at the changeling and broke the silence.

"Garfield?"

His ears shot up at the mention of his real name and he quickly looked up at her.

"Garfield?!"

"Is… is it okay if I call you that?"

"Well, I prefer Gar if we're gonna go on a first name basis, but I suppose the full thing works too."

"Well… Garfield… I just want to say… thank you. I've been acting strange lately and I'm afraid it's rather confusing to the rest of you. So, thank you for putting up with all this," the empath said. He felt as though she were looking into his soul as she stared into his pupils.

"Theres no need to thank us. We're your friends, Rae." He got a mischievous light in his eyes.

"Mind if I call you that?" Beast Boy said, a grin splitting his face. A ghost of a smile touched her lips.

"I'll allow it."

"Great, _Rae_."

Another silence enveloped them. Beast Boy's attention returned to the trashed room.

"Soooo, I like what you did with your room?" he said questioningly. Her smile returned.

"I'm afraid this isn't the next big interior design fad. I've been having… a bit of trouble with my emotions lately. I'm imbalanced I suppose," the demoness bit her cheek and adverted her eyes towards the drawer that held her journal.

"So… you need to meditate more?"

"Yes. Its actually worse than usual. If I come out of my room at all this week, it will be a miracle."

"That bad, huh?"

She nodded and looked back at him with the same pained look. They stared at each other with a shared concern for the situation at hand as well as a crazy desire to kiss the other. The tension could be cut with a butter knife. Eventually, Beast Boy began to feel awkward and Raven nervously watched the pens on her desk dance about as black magic enveloped them. When the changeling coughed and started to get up the pens dropped and she looked up at him.

"Well, I uh… gotta go see how the rest of the team ended up. I'll see ya later… Rae," Beast Boy said, trying to cover up his obvious discomfort with the use of her nickname.

"Goodbye, Garfield."

"Feel better, okay? Just call if you need anything."

"I will."

"Right… okay. Later!" Beast Boy narrowly missed the wall as he tried to walk backwards to the door, keeping his eyes on her as long as he could. The door shut behind him and Raven sighed. The room felt empty. On the other side of the door, Beast Boy slid down the length of the door and leaned his head back, smiling.

_Looks like I really am getting through._

Raven levitated her journal and it's key to her. She unlocked the journal and began to write.

_Starfire was right. I must be deprived of love because I literally had to restrain myself to keep from kissing him. That's all for now, I need to meditate, badly._

Beast Boy's face was stuck in a clenched teeth grin. He was so jittery, but he felt happy at the same time. She was opening up. He got up and took a sharp breath to try and calm himself. As he walked down the hall away from the door, he scratched the back of his neck.

_Dude, she called me Garfield…_

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So, this was a bit of a short chapter. I'll try for a longer one next time. Reviews are appreciated! Laterade!


	6. Interruptions

Took a little while on this update, but lucky for you guys, the next one should be quite soon! You see, I suddenly had the inspiration to knock out most of the next chapter before this one... one of the scenes for that chapter just kinda hit me like a bus. When you have point A and B, it's actually harder than you'd think to connect the two, so thats why it took longer than usual. Anyway, read on!

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This week proved to be a bad one for peace and quiet.

"Dude! Again?! We literally _just_ ordered pizza and now we've gotta go take out the Hive?!"

"Beast Boy, if I could make all crime just disappear at the most convenient moments, I would. But since thats not an option, we've got to go," Robin said rather impatiently as he waited for the green 18 year old to get out of the booth in the pizza place.

"Geez, Rob, leave the sarcasm to Raven. Its not a good look on you," the changeling muttered, sliding out of the booth at short, jerky intervals. There had been crimes at least every day, which took its toll on the team when compared to the peaceful week they had just experienced. It seemed that all the crime in Jump had been planned the week before and was now in action this seven day period.

It was Tuesday at noon and already they had tangled with The "Amazing" Mumbo, Cinderblock, and Dr. Light. And here was the first criminal activity of the day with the remaining members of the Hive robbing the mall.

"Make the haste, Friend Beast Boy! I would not enjoy seeing the mall of shopping badly damaged!" Starfire said, bringing her fist up to her mouth as she worried for her favorite hangout. Beast Boy grabbed the pizza from the woman at the counter and threw a twenty at her. He winked.

"Keep the change, we've got work to do. Later!" With that, he sprinted out of the parlor, pizza in hand while the cashier swooned a little and Raven rolled her eyes before taking to the sky.

With Jinx no longer on the Hive, presumably having gone off somewhere with Kid Flash after the Brotherhood incident, battles with them had gotten a lot easier. Rumor had it that the hex wielder had gone off to travel, with Kid Flash following behind, something he rarely did for anyone.

When the Titans arrived at the mall, Mammoth was carrying some heavy electronics while Gizmo screeched at him while Billy Numerous, Seemore, and Kyd Wykkyd dashed about, each in their own ways, snatching all the cash in the registers along with anything else that suited their fancies.

"Watch it, Scuzbag! We need those for the hideout!" Gizmo yelled. Mammoth growled at him, but otherwise did nothing to change the way he carried the high-tech gear.

"You're all under arrest!" Robin yelled as he skidded his R-cycle to a stop.

"We're not going anywhere, Cludmunchers!" Gizmo said, crossing his arms and smirking as his newly advanced robot-pack grew it's signature spider legs.

"Fine, we'll do this the hard way. Titans, GO!"

Time had not left the Hive team unscathed. Gizmo was now a lanky preteen and Billy Numerous, Seemore, and Kyd Wykkyd had all grown into sizable young adults like the male Titans had. Mammoth was the only one who seemed unchanged; no one knew how old he was anyway. However, none of these changes made it any more difficult to beat the super villain team. Within a half hour, Robin was waiting for the police to arrive so he could explain the situation and fill out any necessary paperwork. Cyborg tapped a few buttons on his arm and looked a the flip up screen that was attached.

"Man, I've already gotta recharge my battery. It might be time for a new one, I've had to recharge this one so much," the metal man said with some annoyance.

"Perhaps it is from the amount of fighting that has transpired in the past three days?"

"I guess, luckily none of those were any serious threats or we'd be in some deep trouble. I mean, just think if our first crime alert had been Slade, Robin woulda gone nuts trying to find a connection between all the recent crime."

"I'm just glad its not Adonis. That guy just really pushes my buttons," Beast Boy said, leaning on the T-car. "Its probably just 'cause he knows all about the 'inner beast' thing or something, but all I know is I hate that dude." Cyborg got a wicked grin on his face.

"You sure its not because every time we fight him, he hits on a certain resident empath, is it?"

"Dude, knock it off…"

"Whatever, grass stain, you just make a move when 'the time is right.' Just like you planned. In other words, you're just gonna let it fester in you until it kills you."

"Shut up, she'll hear you!" Beast Boy hissed. Starfire giggled and looked over to where her friend levitated above the grass. Her look of joy became one of concern. Raven's eyebrows were scrunched together in a look that could have either been pain, frustration, or anger, none of which were good signs. But she knew better than to interrupt and went back to listening to Cyborg and Beast Boy bicker.

In all honesty, Raven wouldn't have heard Cyborg's comment even if she hadn't been trying to meditate. She had unwisely continued to meditate during the nights and days when she could because peaceful time had been rare the past few days. This Tuesday she was just praying for time to relax. Her exhaustion had been paying a toll on her control and therefore, every emotion was heightened. Before she could calm herself, something would happen to make the problem worse. And that something was usually Beast Boy.

He wasn't doing anything special. Of course he had been much nicer to her than in the past but she certainly wasn't going to ask him to stop. But now, because of how she felt about him, every touch, every word, every look, everything made her emotional control get out of hand. Even if he passed her the salt from across the table and their fingers brushed briefly a light pink blush would bloom on her cheeks to the point that she no longer took her hood down for dinner.

So now, as she tried to wrangle her emoticlones and sensed Robin's approach, she sighed, knowing that this session would have to be cut short as well. She slowly lighted on her feet and hoped that no sign of her exhaustion was apparent on her blank face. In any case, she pulled up her hood for good measure.

"Okay, every thing is taken care of. We can head back now."  
"Sounds good. Beast Boy left the pizza in the car, said he had something to do."

"Thanks for telling me, Cy. Star, you want a ride?" Starfire smiled widely and floated herself down to land on the back of the motorcycle. She wrapped her arms around Robin's waist and leaned her head on his shoulder.

"Yes, very much so! The motorcycle is a delightful mode of transportation, is it not?" Robin blushed at the sudden contact and nodded sheepishly. Cyborg chuckled.

"Have fun you two. But, you know, not _too_ much." Cyborg said jokingly. Robin shot the robotic man a glare and zoomed away as the motorcycle roared to life. Cyborg laughed, noticing that Robin had deliberately taken his girlfriend the 'scenic route.' The Tamaranian princess wouldn't mind. He turned to Raven.

"Alright, Rae, I guess it's just you and me in the T-car today. Hop up front." Cyborg leaned into the open door of the driver's seat and shut it behind him as Raven walked around to the passenger side. As soon as she got in, the smell of half meat lovers, half vegetarian pizza wafted around her nose. The pizza parlor had decided to add the curious combination to their menu and call it "The Titan" in their honor because it was their usual. Whenever the team walked in, the cashier immediately told the chef to make one and the non-food Titans went to sit at their usual table, which no one else ever sat in for reverence of their resident crime fighting team. Cyborg took a deep breath and smiled dreamily.

"Can't wait to dig into my side of the pizza when we get home! We haven't gotten enough pizza this week for my tastes," He said, glancing over at the empath.

"Yup."

"Uh, which side do you like? I'm always paying more attention to eating than what you eat I guess." The robotic man laughed and glanced back at the girl sitting next to him. She merely stared ahead and shrugged. His smile straightened and his look turned to one of concern.

"You alright, Rae or do you just not want to talk?" Her eyes flicked up to his for a moment, but focused on the road again.

"I'm fine."

"The fact that you didn't just glare at me says you're not. If you didn't want to talk you woulda just said so or glared at me. Whether you like it or not, Rae, we're not half bad at reading you after all these years," Cyborg said.

"It's just a little trouble with my focus. It's nothing meditation can't fix," Raven said calmly.

"It's never just that. I'm not sure—"

"I'm fine."

"But what if—"

"I'm FINE." With that, the extra large pizza box in the back of the car exploded, splattering pizza toppings on both of them. Cyborg had stopped the car in the middle of the connecting tunnel and the two were staring at each other, wide eyed. Raven's fearful expression was enough to cue Cyborg in that the situation wasn't one he could help with. He nodded his head in realization and continued driving.

"Cyborg, I'm—"

"Don't worry about it. I'll clean it up. It's okay, I can tell that this is something I can't do anything about," he said as the car pulled into the garage.

"But—"

"Go meditate. You need it." Raven bit her lip, as if holding back a reply. Instead of continuing the argument, she merely nodded and ran up the stairs. Cyborg noted that she didn't levitate herself or teleport and then set about cleaning up the remains of an extra large pizza.

An hour later, Beast Boy flew into the open garage door as a falcon looking for Cyborg. In his beak, he held a paper bag with a Paint-a-Cup logo on it. He landed on a bench near Cyborg and shifted back to normal.

"Wassup, Cy—" He was quickly shushed as Cyborg turned, revealing a phone held up to his ear.

"Sorry 'bout that. Beast Boy just came in." A pause.

"Yeah, another Titan for delivery please. To the tower of course." Cyborg turned and looked at Beast Boy as the pizza worker responded. With his animal hearing, the changeling could make out the pizza girls side of the conversation as well as his friend's.

_Another? You guys must be hungry today! That__'__ll be $20 when the pizza delivery guy gets there._

"Hungry? Yeah… I guess you could say that. Thanks, bye." Beast Boy wrinkled his nose and glared at Cyborg as he hung up the phone.

"Dude!? You guys finished the pizza without me?! Who even ate the vegetarian half?!"

Cyborg merely looked over at the still cheesy T-car. A still angry Beast Boy turned his gaze in the same direction and his anger turned to disbelief.

"What happened?" he said, returning his attention to the automaton in front of him.

"Raven has some… stuff to deal with… She said she needed to meditate."

"Is she okay?!'

"I think, but she looked pretty freaked out. I know you want to, but this may not be the time to try and cheer her up. Emphasis on _try_. I think she's been having some control issues lately." The changeling looked conflicted for a moment before he brightened.

"Don't worry. I've got something that will definitely make her feel better." With that, the green 18 year old dashed up the stairs with his paper bag in tow. Cyborg stared after him and shook his head.

"If he gets snapped in half, I'm not puttin' him back together."

On the roof, Raven was trying desperately to get herself together. Nothing seemed to be working; tea, meditation, reading, nothing. Even her levitation was wavering and after pressing her hands to her head, she finally sighed and resigned herself to sit on the edge of the roof with her feet dangling. What was blocking her focus? Her emotional stress with Beast Boy? Her exhaustion? A combination of the two? The empath shook her head and lowered her face in defeat. She had no idea what was happening. She wasn't exactly experienced in the emotional turmoil of crushes and it wasn't exactly like she could go online and search for "effects of crushes on empaths." That wouldn't be a frequently asked question on Ask or anything. And suddenly she could feel the energy of the source of her troubles dashing up the stairs to the roof at record speed. She knew when he reached the door, but the creak of the metal hinges opening slowly still made her jump. She said nothing when he stood behind her, looking for an invitation to conversation. After a few seconds, it appeared that he decided to make his own.

"Uh, Rae?"

"Yes, Beast Boy?" Her voice did little to conceal her tired disposition. Beast Boy bit his lip as he realized he had to be the one driving this conversation.

"Guess what day it is!" the changeling said with much more enthusiasm than the question warranted. Raven snapped her head around to look at him, her passive expression quickly exchanging for a look of pure rage.

"If you say hump day, I swear, I will separate your head from your body." Beast Boy flinched and she registered the intense fear coming off of him in waves. It only sped up the vortex of emotion in her mind, but she didn't care at the moment.

"I-I wasn't! It's Tuesday!" She looked at him, quirking her eyebrow as she waited for clarification.

"You know, Tuesday? The day we could go get our mugs?" Beast Boy laughed nervously and held up the bag. Her face quickly melted into a look of concern and fear.

"I-I'm so sorry! I… I think I need to be alone…" Raven got up and tried to walk around him to the door. Her progress was halted by a gloved hand on her shoulder that sent tingles down her spine.

"Raven? It's totally fine, really!" She tried to pull away, but he tightened his grip.

"Raven." With that one word, she stopped immediately and turned to look at him. The way he said it was firm, a tone used to reprimand a small child, but his eyebrows were merely furrowed in concern. She shook out of his grasp softly, but turned fully so that she was facing him, eyes adverted.

"You're acting really weird, Rae, what's wrong?"

"…"

"Rae?"  
"Don't call me that…" she muttered under her breath. It was his turn to raise his eyebrow. Realizing he wasn't getting anywhere, he led her by the wrist back to the edge of the roof. He sat down and when he gestured for her to follow suit, she complied wordlessly, still looking down. His eyebrow twitched before he started digging in the bag in his hand.

"So I got the mugs back from the shop today! They both look good, but, I like yours best. My glaze is all splotchy." Beast Boy said.

He held her mug out to her in one hand while the other held his directly in front of his face, examining the imperfections with a slight frown. Raven looked at the mug that was presented to her. It was directly in front of her face; it seemed that Beast Boy had forgotten the height difference. He was right. It _was_ perfect. Too perfect. She looked up at his face as he turned his own mug about, his powerful eyesight searching out each and every white spot and discoloration. With a little hesitation she reached up and took the mug from his left hand and examined it for herself. He looked a little surprised and looked from her to the mug he had originally presented her with. She turned it back and forth, using only her fingertips to avoid dirtying the smooth surface.

"Can I have this one?" She said in a wavering, almost fearful voice. The changeling's eyebrows rose almost off his face.

"Uh, sure. But… why do you want it? You deserve a perfect mug like the one you made," he said, displaying the mug she had glazed once again. But she shook her head.

"No, I like this one. You made it. It's perfect." The empath stared him in the eyes for a moment before she returned her gaze to the mug, pink dusting her cheeks. The blush was infectious and Beast Boy's cheeks gained some different color as well. He tilted his head to the side and slowly took the mug from her hands and set both on the ground. The empath looked at him questioningly.

"So, care to talk about what's wrong, Rae… Raven?" he started uncertainly.

"I'm fine, don't worry."

"Raven, I saw the pizza." She froze and Beast Boy tilted his head so that he could get a better look at her downturned face. He liked being tall, but at moments like this he cursed his ten inch growth spurt. It made looking certain short empath's directly in the face very difficult.

"Why won't you just tell me what's wrong?" She looked up at him and he could see the conflict before his very eyes.

"It's hard to put into words…" She said in a soft voice that made him melt a little. He realized that her walls were down, she was too weak to keep them up. Was it his imagination or did she keep flicking her gaze down to his lips? In response he started chewing on his lower lip. After a pause, he leaned forward a bit, not enough to be intimidating, but she definitely noticed by the way her eyes widened and the pink on her cheeks changed to a deep red.

"Well, you don't always need words to say something, do you?" He said, a brief smile wavering on his lips.

"Gar…" She practically whispered his name. The emotional signature drifting around him was clear, she caught his meaning. But she was frozen; she had no idea what to do in this situation. But that didn't stop him.

"I mean, I've wanted to tell you something for a while… but, I've never been great with words, you know?" He chuckled slightly. The pleading look in his eyes made her shiver. What was in that look? Hope? Fear?

"I… suppose I know what you mean…" She began a slow ascent up towards him. Raven had no clue what she was doing, but it felt natural somehow.

"Then, I suppose I'll tell you…" Beast Boy whispered as he closed the distance between them. Raven's eyes began closing, but suddenly her fear got the best of her and her eyes shot open in shock. Beast Boy's own closed eyes shot open to the sound of all the windows on the top floor of the tower shattering and his eyes just barely caught a glimpse of a terrified Raven teleporting away from the roof. He sat there for a few moment's, allowing the moment's events to sink in. He looked down at his feet and saw caught a black bubble dissipating. The mug she had painted had been shattered along with everything else nearby, but his splotchy, imperfect mug had been preserved by her powers. As the heartbreak hit him along with his anger at himself, tears began to stream down his face and he bit back a roar. Instead, he took a heavy breath and tried to calm himself. Beast Boy slowly got up and stalked to the door of the roof, slamming it as he exited, leaving the mug sitting on the roof, forgotten.

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Haha, I bet you guys thought you were gonna get a kiss. Psych.


	7. The Power of Pizza

That was quick. Hello chapter 7.

* * *

Ever since the incident, the tower had been off. It was far to quiet with Beast Boy and Raven avoiding each other like the plague and no arguments took place. Cyborg played video games alone and when Starfire asked Raven to do "the hanging out", she was left going to the mall on her own. Cyborg had a good idea of what had happened and shared his theory with the Robin and Starfire, who both agreed that the events of that Tuesday were probable causes for the strange behavior of their friends. Luckily, crime had slowed down quite a bit and when there was some, it was defeated quickly, mostly due to Raven and Beast Boy. They still worked in perfect unison and after their stalemate, they hit harder than they usually did so that the battle would end sooner and they could go their separate ways once again.

Raven knew that she wouldn't be able to hold a convincing argument if she was confronted by her friends, so she holed herself up in her room. She came out only for food and tea. After a while she only came out for food, which was around the time that the tea kettle and the box of tea bags "mysteriously disappeared" from the kitchen. When outside of her sanctuary, she put of a facade of anger, but deep down Timid and Love were running rampant, bundling together to create a whirlwind of confusion and uncertainty. Beast Boy's pain made him fight much more recklessly than normally, choosing to try and block hits rather than dodge them. Raven had taken it upon herself to shield him more than she usually would because she believed his pain would be her fault. That was the revelation she came to with the increased writing in her journal: that whatever happened, she couldn't bear to see him in pain. This idea was the source of her confusion. She believed with all her heart that she could only hurt him if they were together, but now she saw that with her refusal to open up she was hurting him just as much. It was all very complicated and so she locked herself away in her room, like she had when she had first joined the team. But even with a metal door bearing her name separating her from the rest of the world, she couldn't stop the intensity of his pain from seeping through to her.

Beast Boy on the other hand, thought he was hiding his hurt quite well. He was horribly wrong. He had given up playing video games with Cyborg for the past week which drew a red flag immediately and on top of that he had acted like an angry animal ever since that Tuesday afternoon. He rarely joked and when he smiled it was more of a quirk of the corner of his lips than anything else.

He'd gone through the whole episode with Terra with Raven to help him, her feelings of betrayal had been similar and she had offered her comfort. But with this, there was no one he could go to. He and Cyborg were best friends, but he probably wouldn't know how to deal with a situation like this. Robin would tell him something stupid like "dating within the team is always bad news" the hypocrite. He and Starfire weren't exactly helping the team dynamic. Starfire could at least understand Raven a bit more, but he was afraid she wouldn't understand the social barriers of the situation. So Beast Boy was left dealing with his pain on his own with no outlet or escape except for slamming mediocre villains into the ground with extra force.

One exceptionally quick fight which included Beast Boy hurling the R-cycle at Cinderblock led to increased concern from the team. Robin was mildly annoyed, but he had two extras at home in case something like this happened, so he wasn't too upset. As soon as the danger was gone and Cinderblock was secured, Raven teleported away from the crime scene, presumably to her room. Beast Boy just glared at the spot where she had just been and then stalked over to watch as the police took the newly apprehended villain in case it tried to make a break for it. Cyborg and Starfire looked at each other. The Tamaranian nodded her head. In response, Cyborg caught Robin by the arm when he passed, looking through a packet of crime reports that he had filled out. The leader looked up from his papers and tilted his head to the side.

"Yeah, Cyborg? Could it wait? I have to turn these in to the police." The robotic man shook his head.

"Rob, we gotta deal with those two now. When BB gets mad, he gets more violent." Robin slowly nodded and looked over at the changeling in question.

"Yeah, I've noticed too. So, you want me to do something?"

"We were hoping, yes," Starfire piped in. Robin looked at her and smiled.

"I'll figure something out. Cyborg, you might want to get a pizza."

"Of course… wait, why? Stay focused, bro! This is serious!"

"Cy, you know me. I've always got a plan." Robin smirked uncharacteristically and then continued on his way. Cyborg looked at Starfire quizzically.

"Do you have any idea what he's gonna do?"

"I have kissed Robin many times, but I still have not learned the language of his mind. I have none of the ideas of what his plans are."

"Fantastic. I'm gonna go get a pizza." The cybernetic man hopped in the T car and drove off to the pizza parlor while Starfire waited to give her boyfriend a lift to the tower.

It was an hour before the rest of the Titans got back to the tower together. Cyborg had the pizza sitting on the table when Beast Boy walked in. He went for a piece but a green gloved hand stopped him. He whirled on Robin.

"What?!" The leader raised an eyebrow and took a step back.

"Relax, Beast Boy, I was just going to ask you to go get Raven. I'm not sure if she's eaten recently and it's not healthy."

"Why me? Send Starfire or something." He turned around but Robin grabbed his shoulder. He shot a glare at the traffic light.

"You. NOW." The leader's masked eyes narrowed at his noncompliant teammate, who shook the hand off of his shoulder and stalked out the hall. Robin looked at Cyborg who had been watching the event unfold. The Boy Wonder's tense look turned to a sly grin.

"Plan A."

Beast Boy made his way down the hall angrily. He stopped at Ravens door and knocked roughly.

"Hey, come out, pizza." No reply. He knocked harder.

"HEY. Raven, pizza. I know you can hear me!" He growled at the girl behind the door.

"Please just go away…" A small voice came from behind the stainless steel.

"Raven, Robin won't let me have pizza until you come out. If you don't get out here, I swear I'm tearing the door down and coming in after you. I'm freaking hungry."

Silence. Beast Boy slammed his fist into the door and rested his head on it as a snarl escaped his lips.

"It's not like I don't know why you locked yourself up. And it's fine, we can just forget it." His eyes drifted up to the nameplate and traced each letter with his eyes.

Dead quiet. A wave of frustration and anger took over the changeling.

"So thats it then?! You won't even answer me when I'm trying to fix things?! I just want stuff to go back to normal, isn't that what you wanted?!" Raven was curled up on the floor at the foot of her bed, her knees tucked up to her chest and leaning her back against the bed. She bit her lip as the muffled growls bombarded her door. She had to avoid him, discourage any kind of relationship. She could only hurt him. But the painful emotions that pressed through the door were chipping at her resolve.

"You know, for a second, I actually thought you liked me. YOU. Liked ME. I was a real idiot!" He pulled back from the door and his voice grew to a shout. His eyes never left the nameplate.

"It was stupid to think you could love me, I mean, can you even love at all?! You of all people knew what I went through with Terra. _You_ comforted me. _You_ were the one who had been betrayed before. You of all people know how fragile I really am…" His voice cracked with a sob. The tears that pricked his eyes were beginning to fall.

"I don't need this. I don't need another heartbreak. Raven, I can't… I just can't… And you're not here to help me this time!" A gloved fist connected with the "ave" on the nameplate and left the slightest bit of a dent. He pressed his forehead against the door and left his hand pressed against the name.

"I don't need another Terra. I never expected that you would end up as one…"

Raven covered her mouth as a sob wracked her body. Her own pain and his coursing through her body was unbearable, but she had to keep him safe. Safe from her. But… He was in so much pain now, _because_ she was separating herself from him…

"I don't know why I'm telling you all this. It's not like you'd care anyway, even if you are listening." His voice had dropped to a whisper at this point and Raven stood right at the door to hear him. Her hand rested on the reader, battling with herself about whether she should go to him. He could hear her heartbeat racing.

"I _do_ care…" A dry chuckle escaped the changeling's lips.

"So you _are_ listening are you?'

No reply.

"_Fantastic,_" he breathed. He sat listening to her heart beat for a moment before continuing.

"I do know that it's unlikely that anyone would ever stick around long enough to love me. I'm not fooling anyone, green, fangs and morphing powers aren't super appealing. And the ears don't help at all. It's not like I'm eye-candy or anything."

_Has he even seen himself? He looks like he could be a model__… _The empath thought with disbelief.

"Just… Raven. You need to know something. I'm never going to stop loving you. I thought I loved Terra, but… it never felt like this. This hurts so much more. Her betrayal was what hit me the worst. This… I don't know what this is. I don't understand it, but I know I'm never letting you go. This isn't going away… you hear me? I love you, Raven. And nothing you can do can stop it. Nothing I can do can either…" He leaned back from the door and his hand slid down until it was resting at his side again. Just as his motion stopped, the door slid open and Raven launched herself at him.

Their lips met and Beast Boy was met with the full brunt of all of Raven's intensity bound together between two lips. The kiss was innocent, Raven's hands threaded though the green hair and pulled him to her while his own arms were stiff at his sides in shock. When he finally registered what was happening, he gripped her shoulders with his hands and pushed her out to arms length.

"What the— Raven, what was that?!" He said angrily. Her eyes widened with fear and distress.

"I don't… I don't know…"

"If you think kissing me is gonna make it better, you—"

"No, no, no! I… thats not at all…"

"Than what was that?! You better give me a pretty good explanation for _everything,_ Raven, 'cause if that was for the reason I think, we're gonna have a problem." The empath in question looked down and her hands fiddled with her cloak.

"I thought… you don't always need words to say something…" she murmured in barely a whisper. Her eyes flicked back up to his. Beast Boy's rage melted into a mixture of confusion, fear and just the slightest bit of hope.

"Keep talking." She crossed her arms.

"Its just… as you already know, my powers lash out whenever I feel too strong of any kind of emotion. So, for that reason I need to be alone. The only reason I didn't quit the team after the first week was that I somehow was able to control myself enough that I didn't destroy things every time someone talked to me…" She snorted at the memory.

"So even though I wanted to, really, _really_ wanted to, I coud never have a relationship with you. I'm afraid of what would happen to you if I hurt you, because it would kill me if I did something to you…"

"The problem is, that by trying to hold back, I am hurting you. Garfield, I can feel how much pain you're in. And… it's killing me…" She finally met his gaze as her tears started to fall. He bit his lip and after a moment pulled her into a hug. Her head rested between his chest and his chin and it just felt… right.

"I don't understand, how do I do this?! How do I love?! The Titans are the only people who really ever loved me, I don't even know where to start…" She sobbed. Beast Boy rubbed circles on her back and hushed her.

"It's not something you try to do… I guess you just do whatever it is that shows the people you love that you care. It's not something special, you only have to go half way and then they'll… I'll meet you halfway." Raven pulled back from the hug to look him in the eyes, leaving her hands resting on his chest.

"But we can't…"

"I'm not scared, Rae, we've faced the end of the world and we came back out alive. I don't care how scared you are because I'll still be there. Let me chase your fears away. Let me show you how to love."

"I want to learn." Beast Boy pulled her back into his arms.

"Beast Boy… Gar… I love you." His grip tightened. She felt wetness drip onto her hair and she felt him shiver.

"You… don't know how long I've wanted you to say those three words. How long I hoped, dreamed even… How long I told myself I wasn't good enough for you…"

"Gar, I-I'm so sorry—"

"No, don't. Just… just say it again. Say it again, and just maybe I'll finally be able to believe it." She tilted her head back so that she amethyst met emerald.

"You don't always need words to say something," She whispered and captured his lips in a soft embrace. His eyes drifted shut and he moved his arms so that they wrapped around to her shoulder blades. After a few moments, they broke apart and rested their foreheads together. Beast Boy mouthed the words "I love you."

"To be completely honest, the green is seen as exotic and the fang is adorable."

"Come again?"

"I read it in one of Starfire's magazines. You're Jump City's most eligible bachelor."

"Am I really though?" he asked, planting a kiss on the corner of her lips.

"Funny that 'Jump City's most eligible bachelor' has only just got his first kiss…" Raven's eyes widened.

"But what about—"

"Terra? Never actually kissed her. You're the first. What do you think they'll call us?"

"They?"

"Yeah, like, our ship name. What about… 'The Chromatically Challenged Couple'?"

"Don't they already call us BBRae?"

"Yeah, but, The Triple C is easier to put in a magazine or something."

"I'll take your word for it."

A comfortable silence enveloped them.

"So, are we gonna tell the team?"

"Tell them what?"

"You know… Us?" Raven thought for a moment.

"No."

"Are you sure? I mean—"

"NO."

"Okay, okay. It's fine, whatever, Rae. Just glad you shared the secret with me at least." Beast Boy grinned. Raven raised an eyebrow.

"You keep calling me 'Rae'."

"_You_ keep calling me 'Gar'."

"…fair enough."

* * *

Chromatically Challenged Couple is copyrighted by TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne XD

So, you guys got your fluff. I just had to load a wheelbarrow full of angst on top before it. Now the problem: I don't actually know what to do with this story now. I haven't got much of an idea where this should go next so until I figure that out, updates may take a while. So what I want you to do, is tell me what you would like to see from the story in a PM or something and with those little sparks of creativity we may be able to get a nice bonfire going. Sound good? Great. Hope to see some responses! Laterade!


	8. So Long as No One Knows

So a shoutout to Crow the Mad, TheForce, and TrumpetNeard for the imagination jumpstarts that they supplied for this chapter. Tanks guise. Ideas are still helpful contributions though if anyone wants to help out since I still honestly don't know where this story is going. Scene ideas, interesting sentences, phrases, anything and everything gets my creative juices flowing.

One last note, I will probably be editing a little in the older chapters so that everything matches up nicely and all that (things like that awkward use of the name Nightwing in the first chapter and then never again. Whoops. I think I also said Beast Boy was already 18 at some point, which is incorrect for this story I might add.). So if you're getting notifications about it, feel free to reread chapters, but I doubt there will be anything monumentally different. I'll make sure to tell you if there are. So thats all, you can read the story now. Of course theres already the chance that you're already reading the story and you skipped this authors note in which case you wouldn't have seen this sentence, but, alas, I do not care. I'm tired, none of this will make sense when I next read it I'm afraid. Goodbye until the end of the chapter.

* * *

"…and then he probably stormed off to her room, one of them will break down a little, and the other will come rushing to their rescue. Simple."

Cyborg crossed his arms and stared at Robin incredulously. Even Starfire's face appeared concerned though she usually trusted her boyfriend completely.

"Rob, that plan is full of theoreticals that I'm starting to question your identity right now. You still you, bro?"

"Friends Beast Boy and Raven are very unpredictable, yes? How can you hope to do the predicting of what they would do in such a new occasion?" Robin smirked.

"Actually, when it comes to each other, their pretty easy to read. There's patterns in all of their routines. When Beast Boy acts immature, Raven attacks him verbally or physically. When tries to keep herself distanced, Beast Boy pulls her back to us." Cyborg shook his head at Robin's explanation.

"What does any of that have to do with your horrible plan?"

"I wasn't finished, this last one is the crucial part. One gets hurt, the other goes to comfort them, they open up to each other, and then their relationship grows. In this case, I think the hurt has been building up, probably because they hurt each other if your theory is correct, Cyborg." Robin looked at the metal man for confirmation to which Cyborg nodded.

"Well, right after he came down from the roof he told me that I needed to replace ALL the windows in the top floor and when I asked him why, he practically snarled at me to mind my own business. If that mess wasn't caused by both of them then we probably had a tornado hit only the top floor. It's a good thing none of our rooms are up there 'cause everything up there was trashed." Robin nodded.

"See, when one of them is hurt by some external force, like Terra in Beast Boy's case or Malchior in Raven's, it's easy for the other to come offer some support. But on the rare occasion that Beast Boy hurt Raven, or vice versa, they don't want to go to each other. Usually it's not too serious and they make up soon enough, but I think both of them are actually hurting a lot this time. So, by forcing Beast Boy to go to Raven under the threat of no pizza, we're helping them reconcile. It's simple strategy," said Robin, crossing his arms and meeting his skeptical teammates' stares.

"Yeah, Rob. Simple," Cyborg drawled sarcastically. He noted that he had probably hung out with Raven in the garage too much lately, this cybernetic sarcasm is getting out of hand.

"Robin, do you not see that you cannot force either of them to reconcile? Raven and Beast Boy are stubborn as… is it the mules?" After a nod of confirmation from Cyborg she continued.

"This behavior is only increased when it comes to the two of them together. They will not move if they do not want to do the moving." The Tamaranian princess took a step forward and put her hand on her boyfriend's shoulder. Robin covered the hand with his own.

"Don't worry so much. Beside, even if this doesn't work, I always have a Plan B." He smiled with confidence and Starfire couldn't help but smile back, albeit with a quite a bit more concern. At that moment, the doors from the hallway split to reveal the changeling. All eyes turned towards him widely. The still-teen raised his eyebrows and looked at each of them cautiously.

"Uh… can I have pizza now?" The six innocent words snapped them all from whatever trance they were in.

"Um, yeah, of course you can… where's Raven?" was Robin's stammering reply. Beast Boy's back visibly straightened at the mention of the empath. He quickly busied himself with peeling two large wedges of vegetarian pizza from the box at the table.

"She, uh, was asleep?" he said, almost questioningly. From her seat, Starfire couldn't tear her eyes from the green animorph's face, much to said subject's dismay. Cyborg coughed awkwardly before speaking.

"Right. Yeah, she looked like she was about to fall asleep standing up today. Thanks for checking on her buddy." Beast Boy let out a little chuckle of relief and took a bite of his pizza.

"No problem dude!" grinning, which only shocked his teammates more, he began to eat with the most enthusiasm they'd seen in him for a week.

When Beast Boy walked in, he had been unable to contain his joy and had a blissful grin plastered to his face. This in itself was alarming because the still-teen hadn't so much as smiled wholeheartedly since that fateful Tuesday. However, this was not the main cause of their shock. No, the reason that they had all forgotten completely what they were about to say, the reason for Robin's uncharacteristic stuttering, the reason that Starfire couldn't for the life of her look away from his face, was a reason much more shocking than a measly grin.

The reason for their disturbance was that they were all very aware of the fact that Raven wore lip gloss. Purple lip gloss.

Now, Starfire already knew about her friend's make-up use. She was the one who had gone to the mall and helped the demoness pick out the perfect colors for her unusual skin tone. What bothered her so much was the presence of said make-up on Beast Boy. His lips in particular. She had been expecting some kind of romance to bloom between the two, but she hadn't expected it quite so soon.

But there he was, the green rascal. Scarfing down pizza with a purplish, waxy residue plastered messily on his lips.

Slowly, Robin reached out and tore two pieces of pizza out of the box. One meat lovers and one vegetarian slice. Cyborg followed suit with two pieces of meat lovers, realizing that the leader was trying to create some kind of normalcy. If Raven wanted them to know, Beast Boy would have been announcing their relationship at the top of his lungs. And since Raven didn't want them to know, they all silently agreed that as far as they were concerned, they knew nothing. Starfire still looked extremely uncomfortable, but she took whichever slice was nearest to her in the doughy disk and began eating it without really tasting anything as she thought deeply. Robin seemed to be planning what to do next, so once again, it was left to Cyborg to run the conversation.

"So, BB." Beast Boy's face shot up to meet Cyborg's, fear wiping across his face momentarily as if he were guilty of something (which clearly he was).

"Y-yeah?"

"It's your birthday next week, right?" The changeling's concern melted into a horribly obvious sigh.

"Uh, yeah! Friday the 2nd!" He grinned. For some reason it seemed like it was a surprise that they all remembered his birthday each year. Cyborg figured that they hadn't celebrated anything so "frivolous" as birthdays in the Doom Patrol.

"You got any plans yet? Eighteen's a big one man. I was thinking we might invite some other Titans and make it a party." The metal man smiled as his friend brightened considerably. He knew exactly what would distract this kid, he had the attention span of a dog in a park full of frisbees, squirrels and bacon.

"You mean it?!" Beast Boy looked at Robin quickly.

"Sounds like a good idea to me," the masked leader replied. Starfire giggled and clapped her hand's lightly as her excitement for the party grew as well.

"Dude! This is gonna be the best birthday ever! Thanks Cy!" Without another thought Beast Boy wiped his face in a napkin, effectively removing most of the purple, and threw both his paper plate and napkin into the trash can. The massive grin on his face was unmistakably genuine when the changeling turned back to face his team.

"You guys are awesome, you know that? I'm gonna go for a ride in the B-car. Get it? 'Cause… Beast Boy?" He snickered at his own joke, failing to notice the lack of groans from Cyborg. Swiftly, he grabbed his keys from off the hook on the wall, green t rex keychain dancing madly, and walked off to the garage with a spring in his step and a whistle on his lips. The door slammed, leaving Robin and Cyborg to stare at each other with wide eyes and Starfire to continue eating her pizza in silence as she tried to comprehend that day's events.

"What just…?"

"Happened? I honestly have no clue. Did you see the…?"

"He has green skin and it was purple. I'm a detective, Cy, did you think I wouldn't when it's that obvious?!"

"You know theres still the whole thing with you not realizing how much Star liked you—"

"Fine. Okay, I get it." Robin pinched the bridge of his nose and screwed his eyes shut as if he expected this whole predicament to go away if he closed his visual portals to the world.

"Bro, I think "Plan A" worked almost too well. Sorry for doubting you on that."

"It's fine, I probably would have doubted me too if I actually heard myself. You should hear what Plan B was; now _that_ was—" Suddenly, Starfire slammed her fists on the table and glared daggers at both males, effectively cutting off their conversation.

"Why are we not focusing on the issue of importance?! Friend Beast Boy has let us in on information that we have no business knowing! This is the serious matter!" Cyborg's human eye drifted over the cheese Starfire had splattered when she hammered her fist into her slice of pizza but looked her in the eye with a look of concern a moment later.

"Honestly, Star, I don't know what we can do. I mean, beside pretending we don't know, but I feel like we should let them just do their own thing, ya know?" Robin nodded and rubbed his hand over Starfire's tensed forearm to try and get her to calm down.

"He's right, Star. And to be fair, they're both pretty oblivious—"

"Like a certain leader we know." Robin shot a glare at the snickering robotic man before continuing.

"What I'm trying to say is that I'm not sure that it will be too hard to keep the fact that we know a secret. Unless we say something extremely incriminating, which I trust us all to _not_ do, I think we should be fine." Starfire's arms began relaxing and she looked up at Robin for the first time since he had begun speaking. A faint smile graced her lips.

"I am sure you are right, boyfriend. I am truly sorry for my outburst, I shall clean up my mess." As she began wiping cheese and toppings off the table, Cyborg let out a sigh.

"Man am I glad that it's Beast Boy that we're keeping secrets from. If it was him trying to hold it in, we'd be toast no doubt. If that kid has a filter, it's full of holes."

TtTtTtTtTtT

As he drove through the connecting tunnel, his face illuminated at regular intervals by the evenly placed LED lights, Beast Boy chuckled softly. He couldn't believe what he had gotten away with. And here he was thinking he was an open book. Maybe he'd been hanging out with Raven long enough to pick up her blank facade and monotone. He'd been replaying the last half hour's events over and over in his mind.

_"You keep calling me 'Rae'."_

_ "__**You**__ keep calling me 'Gar'."_

_ "…fair enough." He pulled away from her embrace so that he could see her face. Being tall was great, but man, even such a simple task was a struggle._

_ "So… are you my girlfriend now? Can I at least tell people that I finally have a girlfriend even if I don't tell them who?" he asked playfully. The low chuckle that drove him crazy drifted up to his ears._

_ "I'm not completely sure how things like this work, but I suppose someone like me couldn't merely date someone. The fact that I told you how I feel proves that you mean more to me than just someone I'm dating. But knowing our team, if you told them you had a girlfriend they would want to meet her." Raven leaned forward to rest her head on his chest once again. He tightened his arms around her._

_ "Thats true. What should we do now? They're kinda expecting me to bring you back for pizza soon. But I don't really wanna leave now…" The empath paused._

_ "Tell them I was asleep when you got here. And try to act as natural as possible."_

_ "I guess." Yet neither made any move to leave._

_ "I should really get back to meditating."_

_ "I should get out there soon." No movement._

_ Slowly, so not to be too abrupt, Beast Boy retracted his arms from around the waist of the girl that he loved. He rested his large gloved hands on her biceps to gently tell her that it was time to let go of his neck, though he was really enjoying her slender fingers dragging through the hair above his neck. After a moment, she released him and they stood together awkwardly. In one swift and sudden movement, Raven gave him a peck on the lips before dashing into her bedroom._

_ His eyes opened a bit wider as the residual tingle flew through every neuron in his body. He had a dazed grin on his face as he reached up and brushed his lips with two gloved fingers. The animorph read the now slightly dented nameplate on the door one last time and then turned down the hall towards the main ops room._

After that, the whole episode with the remaining members of his team occurred, but he was confident. So maybe he was acting a little funny? Another toothy grin split Beast Boy's face. No one even suspected a thing.

* * *

Oh Beast Boy, it's a good thing you're adorable, because you know so little. As for Starfire, couldn't you have waited to shush them? I was wondering what Plan B was...


	9. Daily Preparations

Wow, long chapter today. Probably coulda split it up, but eh, whats the fun in that.

Guys, I was listening to the Lavender Town theme for Pokemon while I was writing this on an unofficial dare, so if things are a tad creepy, it's not my fault, blame Lavender Town. Also I had a migraine before all this, so this might be a little bit insane. Woooooo...

Lets see, thank you to Nick the wolf for your contributions to this chapter! I think everything else was my own ideas that spiraled off of things people said and such so thats all for thank you's for this chapter. That should be it, read on!

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Beast Boy's Birthday Bash, as the changeling in question cleverly dubbed it, was in the beginning stages of planning. Starfire, though she had been a bit on edge around Beast Boy, had asked the birthday boy for ideas on the party so that she could work them into her ultimate plan. He gave her a quickly scribbled list written in green colored pencil and on a crumpled piece of printer paper. What he described was as follows:

_What I want at my birthday party_

_1\. A live band or a DJ would be pretty cool_

_2\. GREEEEN. EVERYWHERE. PLEASE._

_3\. A photo booth_

_4\. (A petting zoo *crossed out*) A monster truck or something else manly_

_5\. As many Titans as can come!_

_I'm sure whatever you come up with will be great, don't worry about it Star! This party will be great even if it's not green. :)_

_~BB_

However, Starfire was determined to put together a beautiful combination of all of those things, including green everything. However, she intended to add her own touches as well. She was going to accent everything with purple in memory of Beast Boy's long-time Doom Patrol outfit and for another reason or two that she had been told not to share with the oblivious Titan. She decided that a monster truck would take up too much room and after asking Robin, also decided that the changeling didn't want a petting zoo after all. So that left a live band/DJ, a Photo Booth, and inviting all the Titans to figure out. Simple enough, what could go wrong?

But of course they were Titans, and though everything worked out in the end, a series of unforeseen shenanigans kept the Tamaranian princess on her toes.

The local party stores didn't have nearly enough green, so they all took it upon themselves to travel to the farther corners of the west coast to procure enough green plastic cups, napkins, plates, balloons, and whatever else they needed to fuel the party for the long hours that Beast Boy was insistent upon. In the end, it was Raven who managed to pick up the most with her speedy transportation and no nonsense attitude. All she had to do was appear in a party store and demand in her monotone that they pack up all their green party supplies for her and she was set. When Beast Boy teased her, saying "Aw! You really _do_ care!" and she didn't do anything other than glare at him, Cyborg repressed the urge to tease the two on their budding relationship. It was no fun for his friend to have a girlfriend if he couldn't tease him about it.

Robin had his doubts, seeing as Titans around the world would all be exhausted and in one place if the party went from 6PM to 6AM as the animorph wanted. However, he was able to compromise with Beast Boy by changing the ending time to 2PM, reasoning that no one would want to be awake until 6AM anyway.

The next problem they encountered was the issue of the photo booth. It hadn't seemed like a difficult find, Starfire had found a company that rented them out ordered on immediately so that it would get there significantly early and they would be able to work out any bugs before the party began. However, after being notified that the company wanted them to pay extra for shipping because they lived in such a "remote" location, she marched (or rather flew) herself right down to the facility, ripped the door off it's hinges, and demanded that they give her her shipping fee back so that she could take care of it herself. The glowing green eyes and her height helped the process along very nicely and within the span of twenty minutes, the alien princess was out of there, flying happily towards the tower with her shipping fee money in hand and a photo booth slung over her shoulder. Who said that you couldn't use powers for every day situations?

Next, they reached the issue of the band or DJ. There were plenty of well knowns of both categories practically lining up for a gig like this, but they all agreed that none of them quite fit what a Titans birthday party should be. After asking for help with setting up with everything from their closest Titan neighbors, the Titans East, the problem all but solved itself. Bumblebee sheepishly admitted that she and a few other Titans had actually put together a rock band and Mas y Menos just so happened to be masters of the turntable. Agreeing that a Titans only party with even the music put together by Titans made the birthday that much more personal, Starfire gave the winged girl a bone crushing hug and invited her to both the party planning team and the stage.

The final and most confusing incident was the problem of the party invitations. Sure, inviting the Titans East was easy because they just had to send an invite home with Bee, but for the rest of the heroes the challenge would be similar to when they had been uniting young heroes against the Brotherhood. After the invitations were all initialed with a double B, the process of figuring out how each letter was to be delivered came into question. They could just call over the communicators, but Starfire had insisted that that was out of the question. Things had to be done correctly for the occasion, as she put it. So they separated the invitations into groups, heroes that had set addresses, heroes that wouldn't be hard to deliver invitations personally to, and heroes that would require some difficulty to track down and deliver to. The first two piles were given to Beast Boy and Cyborg so that the two could hang out together, drop the correct envelopes off at the post office, and then cruise around town in the Mustang delivering the rest that they had. Starfire, Raven and Robin would take care of the rest, Robin tracking down everyone in his databases and handing the letters and the coordinates off to the girls. Beast Boy was just happy that he didn't have to deliver anything to Jericho this time around and was more than willing to take Cyborg out for a drive in "the B-car".

All these preparations took the team right up to the Thursday before the party since the occasional crime alert made them reluctantly drop everything. With a loud, contented sigh Starfire dropped herself onto the couch beside Robin. Everything was set up and all that was left was putting up the decorations on the roof for the actual day, since the wind alone would cause havoc overnight without the roof being a constant meeting place for the "secret" couple.

This was going to be the most eventful Titan birthday since Raven's sweet sixteen which no one would ever even think to bring up. So far, there hadn't been a birthday within the organization that warranted anything more than a few Titans East member's showing up with mini confetti poppers and a few poorly wrapped presents, but everyone seemed to get along with the changeling since he had matured into a significantly less annoying, laid-back teen. Since most of the Titans were already passed their own teenage years, he still took on the little brother role, but he didn't mind. He was just excited that his would be the most unprecedented party in Titan history. The soon-to-be 18 year old let out a relaxing sigh of his own and flopped onto the couch perhaps a bit too close to the reading Raven for what was once considered normal, but everyone was too wiped out to care or notice.

"Dudes, we did it!" Beast Boy threw his fist into the air half-heartedly, punctuating the action with a yawn.

"Now I know why I've never been one for big parties, that was exhausting," Robin replied, lazily draping an arm over the almost asleep Starfire's shoulders. He looked at Cyborg strangely as the large robotic man plugged something into a port on his arm. He raised an eyebrow at the traffic light.

"What? Never seen a half robot plug a portable charger into his arm after spending a busy day setting up for his super hero best bro's birthday party?" Cyborg's mocking grin stretched farther across his face when the team leader shook his head lightly and laughed.

"No, its just that I haven't seen you have battery issues since we were still the Teen Titans. Remember that?" Cyborg's incredulous laugh answered the question quickly.

"Remember? Dude, a subterranean mastermind with a ton of robot minions tried to get rid of my humanity that day. Of course I remember! Man, I miss those days though, we felt pretty invincible back then." Cyborg looked off at nothing in particular as he remembered some passed villains fought and some nice memories. Robin nodded.

"Well, invincible wasn't hard to believe when you survived the end of the world, took down massive crime organizations and saved entire cities from ink monsters. In comparison, it doesn't even seem like we're needed here anymore." The cybernetic man looked down at his spiky haired friend with concern. He glanced to the other end of the couch, where Beast Boy and Raven had already fallen asleep leaning on each other's heads.

"So… have you told anyone else about the invitation?" Robin looked up and raised an eyebrow.

"Have I told all my friends and my girlfriend that Superman invited me leave the Titans and join the Justice League in their big floating tower in the sky, where I may never get to see them ever again? Yeah, that'll go over great."

"Well you need to tell them sometime—"

"Or, I could just not and refuse the invitation completely."

"Rob, this is a good opportunity. You should take it."

"This is why I don't want to tell them. Everyone would only tell me how great of an opportunity this is and that I should go for it. I only told you because, well, when you get invited to the Justice League, you have to brag at least a little."

"Dude, we'll be fine here! You have a chance to become one of the greats and you're gonna pass it up?!" Standing up with a heavily sleeping Starfire lifted bridal style in his arms, Robin stared his friend in the eye.

"Yes. That's exactly what I'm going to do, Cyborg. We only get to be kids once, some things are worth sticking around for," The Boy Wonder said quietly, looking down at Starfire to brush a few hairs out of her peaceful face. He looked back at the cybernetic man.

"So yeah, I'm passing up something big. But the Justice League will always be there, and I can think of at least four reasons why I couldn't leave." Cyborg smirked and looked over the other four members of the team with pride. He met Robin's smile.

"Alright, enough sentimental stuff. Take you're little princess to bed now, she deserves a rest. You better not be in her room for more than ten minutes though, you hear me?" Cyborg mockingly shook a finger at his friend, who laughed in response.

"No promises," He said over his shoulder as he walked around the couch and through the sliding doors. Cyborg was left looking down at the sleeping changeling and empath. He rested his metal hands on his hips.

_Well I can't pick them up without disturbing them… Wonder what would happen if I just left 'em…_

Shrugging, the cybernetic man took a gray blanket from a shelf near the TV and draped it around the two.

"Night, kids. Don't stay up too late," Cyborg said, wondering when he had become everyone's big brother. He shut off the lights and made his way through the door, yawning loudly.

TtTtTtTtTtT

Raven wasn't sure why she woke up. But she kept her eyes closed and buried her face in her pillow. Her pillow that smelled like the oddly nice combination of smells that made up Beast Boy. Oh. That's where she was, still on the couch in the main ops room. She vaguely worried that her teammates might have seen them, but she couldn't bring herself to care at this point. Suddenly, she was reminded of why she had woken up when the wave of fear and rage that hit her from her "pillow" was accompanied by a growl and a sudden tensing of muscles. Her eyes opened to reveal the darkened living room to her violet orbs. From her quick scan of the room, she noted that the lights had been turned off and there was a blanket thrown over the two of them. She turned over the suspicion in her mind that her three teammates knew more than they let on, but the demoness was interrupted by another shudder from her significant other.

Raven removed herself from Beast Boy's shoulder so that she could get a good look at the green teen's face. His brow was furrowed and his lips were pulled back in a snarl. Her face changed to one of worry as she contemplated the best course of action. The two had gone through a series of baby steps for their relationship such as Raven allowing the changeling to hold her hand while she read on the roof, but the empath had no way of knowing whether or not joining someone's dreams was too big a step for their pace so far. It was another one of those things that one couldn't simple find an answer to by looking in Starfire's magazines. But as another shudder wracked his body, Raven became determined that the animorph didn't deserve to fight his dreams alone on his birthday. After all, it had already passed midnight, technically this was another birthday gift for him.

Breathing deeply, Raven felt the physical barriers between humans dissipating and the free flowing currents of the mind opening to her. Her soul self reached out into Beast Boy's and when she opened her eyes, she saw a grassy plain. She turned about, searching for the host of the dream. She blinked again deeply and when her eyes opened she was again in a new place. She could tell it was the same plain, but she watched as if from a movie theater and what she saw before her was a peaceful setting with a Beast Boy sitting under the shade of a tree with a cloaked girl leaned against his shoulder. Upon further inspection, she realized it was her. There was a blissful look on the faces of both and for a moment, the real Raven frowned.

_Is this really such a cause for all that rage and fear? Is he afraid of me?_

But her question was quickly answered when four Werebeasts materialized out of the shadows. Pseudo-Raven's face showed poorly concealed terror and Beast Boy rose quickly to meet the impeding assailants. As two Beasts attempted to strike, the changeling knocked them aside easily with his normal animal forms, but when all for attempted to rush him, he struggled to keep the mass of claws and flying fur from reaching his beloved who cowered at the trunk of the tree much to Raven's disgust. However, he couldn't keep them back by himself and a shriek rang out clearly in the wooded area when one of the Beast's clipped pseudo-Raven's arm with a razor sharp claw. At the sound, she could feel Beast Boy's rage grow exponentially and soon his own green Beast form was slashing gray fur left and right with enough power to dig through stone. Real Raven bit her lip to keep from crying out at the horribly graphic massacre that was taking place. Finally, with three of the behemoth lying in the grass with blood pooled around them and one clutched in the claws of Beast Boy himself, the teen began morphing back to himself. He closed his eyes and shuddered as the bloodlust left him before sighing deeply.

"It's okay, Raven. You're safe now." The animorph turned his head to look for the girl who he had already bonded to with half the animals in his body. But she was was no where to be found. What he did see, were the bodies of the three bloodied bodies of the gray Beasts that had lain on the ground melting into the bodies of Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg. A choking gasp escaped his lips.

Raven's eyes widened as the dream took a dark turn. She could see the tears forming in the emerald eyes and she could hear as his breathing caught in his throat. He was in pain. She hated to see him in pain. Swiftly, she passed herself through the dream barrier that made everything she saw like looking at a movie screen, but not before she witnessed the finale of the horror.

Beast Boy could hardly contain his horror, guilt and pain from the realization that he was the reason for the death of his friends. He was scared for what was coming next. Shutting his eyes tight, he turned back to the once Beast-like body that he suddenly remembered holding in his claws. A tear dripped down his face.

"I love you, Raven…" and he opened his eyes. Sure enough, the pseudo-empath was impaled by the yet to be retracted claws and her head lolled at an unnatural angle. The pent up emotion he had been holding in finally burst and a primal roar echoed from his lips as the tears flowed freely. Suddenly, he whirled around with a snarl as a small hand touched his shoulder. But soon his gaze softened in relief and sadness. He dropped the lifeless body in his arms and swept the real Raven into his arms.

"I-I'm so sorry… I-I don't…"

"Shhhh, it will all be okay," she said calmly, as she rubbed random patterns on his back. She ignored the stickiness and smell of the blood splattered on his uniform, reminding herself that it wasn't real. She felt wetness seep into her hair were he had buried his face into it, drawing in her scent to calm him. She had discovered that the scent of her meditation candles settled his nerves and she had given him one for his room. She supposed that her hair was the next best substitute for the aroma.

"They're… they're dead, Raven… and its all my—"

"No its not. Shhhh, this is just a bad dream, just calm down."

"But I… my claws… and all the blood—"

"No. Just breathe, everything will be alright."

"I'm a monster, Raven…" She pulled back from the embrace to frown at him.

"Garfield, I'm half demon."

"Well, yeah but—"

"Gar. I'm _half demon._" She put extra emphasis on her words, staring him in the eyes and hoping that her meaning would come across. He looked at her for a moment before pulling her back into the embrace.

"I guess that if anyone understood, it would be you." He chuckled.

"What's funny?"

"We make a perfect teenage romance novel couple."

"Come again?"

"A demon and a werebeast. Thats close enough to a vampire and a werewolf, right?" She shook her head, amused.

"Yes, Garfield. It is close enough." As she spoke the landscape around them began dissolving into whiteness.

They both blinked awake slowly. It was still dark out. Stretching, Beast Boy disentangled his arms from around Raven's body and looked down at her. Unlike during the daytime, there were quite a few purple strands out of place and she ran both hands through the shoulder length mess to pull the hair away from her eyes. She looked up at him and with one hand she ruffled up his already messy bed head when she caught the meaning of his amused look. His fang hung out over his lip as his smile grew.

"That was the best I've slept since before I developed the Beast form."

"What time is it?" Beast Boy dug around for his communicator and flipped it open.

"Four AM." The empath paused at the answer. Before quickly blushing and pecking him on the cheek.

"Happy birthday…" A dopey smile spread across the changeling's face so that he barely registered his girlfriend's second statement.

"Do you… maybe want some tea?" The animorph blinked.

"I've never tried it." With those word out of his mouth, the cloaked girl was already at her beloved tea kettle. She pulled some ancient looking tea leaves as well at a tea bag from a higher shelf and set them out on the counter as she waited for the water to boil. He slowly got up from the couch, after stretching himself out as a cat, and made his way to the kitchen. The tea leaves were obviously what Raven used on a regular basis, but the scent of the tea packet was new.

"What's this one, Rae?"

"Well, _Gar,_ I know you like things sweet rather than bitter, so I figured you might want something other than what I'm having."

"What flavor?"

"Sweet Apple Chamomile." His mouth practically watered at the name.

"Sounds like pie." Her low chuckle sent tingles up his spine.

"Not quite, but I think you'll like it anyway."

The kettle's whistle sounded and she quickly turned the heat off the burner. She rotated her hand and a familiar green and purple tea cup appeared in her hand. Beast Boy's eyes brightened.

"Hey! I was wondering what you did with that!" She adverted her eyes sheepishly.

"Actually this is the only mug I drink out of now…" The changeling's laugh rang out clearly in the empty room.

"Thats kinda adorable!" He reached up into the cabinet to get another mug when a feather light touch stopped him.

"That… won't be necessary."

"But the other one…" Another rotation of her hand brought the mug she had glazed into her other palm. He stared at it for a moment with awe before taking it from her hands.

"But I thought you destroyed it…"

"Nothing a little magic couldn't fix." He looked at her with his eyebrows scrunched together to the point that she could actually see the gears turning in his head. Raven poured water into the mugs and dropped Beast Boy's tea bag into it. Then she set about preparing her own tea. Finally, he collected his thoughts and spoke again.

"You could have fixed that first mug that you dropped the whole time and you decided to go to the store with me instead. For a _whole_ day." Raven's eyes widened as Beast Boy's smile did as well. She quickly adverted her gaze and a blush spread over her pale face.

"I thought I might hurt you feelings if I didn't—"

"Oh no, Rae. You _wanted_ to go. I think it's 'cause you _like_ me. Come on, admit it, you _do_ care!" He took a triumphant sip of tea. Though it practically scalded him, he went back for another sip.

"Hey, this tea is actually pretty good!" Raven chuckled and looked up at him.

"Of course it's good. And of course I care, stupid, I'm dating you aren't I?" With that, she stood up on her tip toes and silenced any replies with her lips firmly pressed to his. After a moment when they separated, Beast Boy draped his arms around the empath's back to keep her close to him.

"I think I can get used to getting called stupid if it always comes with a kiss," he said, his eyes glazed over. She laughed again and it made the already warm feeling in his chest rise a couple of degrees.

"You taste like apples."

"Hey, if you wanna drink your tea like that _all_ the time, I won't stop ya! I'll drink all the tea you want me to! Heck, we don't even need those mugs any more if this is how you like it!" Raven's laughter came freely. It was good to see her able to show emotion without too much fear of destruction. For the rest of the morning, the two of them sat there, sipping tea, joking around and generally acting like a couple until the other Titans rose from their dreamless sleeps and joined them in the kitchen. They had found themselves a nice morning tradition. And of course neither of them seemed to remember that the tower's surveillance cameras picked up each and every exchange.

* * *

Can Mas and Menos DJ _my_ birthday?


	10. Finishing Touches

Been a while hasn't it?

* * *

To say Cyborg was surprised that Beast Boy was already in the kitchen when the robotic man got up would be an understatement. He had set himself a brain timer to wake him up at five in the morning so that he could set up the personal Titans west party in the main ops room and then make a special birthday breakfast for his friend with the vegetarian recipes he had found on the internet. However, he walked through the main doors to see not only Raven sipping her tea, but Beast Boy enjoying a cup as well. Out of personalized mugs. Were they _trying_ to get caught?

"Uh, hey guys! BB, happy birthday man! Decided not to sleep in on your special day?" Cyborg made his way to the refrigerator to gather the ingredients he needed for a vegetarian course.

"Nah, too excited to sleep! I'm 18 today, how could I sleep through it?!" A bright toothy grin was plastered on his face.

"Alright, well, I'm gonna go ahead and make you breakfast, sit tight little man."

"Ew! No! You're gonna try to make me eat bacon or something!"

"What! No, I was just going to make you a— whatever this thing is." Cyborg handed him a print out of the recipe he was using.

"Ooh, spinach quiche! That actually sounds pretty good!"

"What I tell you? What kind of friend tries to make his vegetarian buddy eat meat on his birthday? I'm not _that_ heartless," Cyborg said as he prepared the crust for the breakfast dish.

One quiche and two finally awakened Titans later, it was time for presents. Robin, grudgingly, gave him a "Get out of Morning Training Free" coupon. The changeling almost hugged the leader for that. Starfire gleefully handed her friend a statue of a kitten that she had obviously painted green and coated in glitter. He laughed heartily and obliged the Tamaranian princess with a bone crushing hug. Cyborg handed him a tightly wrapped gift that after a few tears was revealed to be the newest racing game for the Gamestation 4 that the two had been eyeing. Cyborg was quick to inform him that the gift was technically for the both of them and he fully intended on "kicking his little green butt" in every round they played. When it came to Raven's gift, the three other Titans waited expectantly for the changeling to open the gift, wonder what the empath would give to her "secret" boyfriend.

Beast Boy's eyes widened when he yanked the lid off the box. His other teammates looked over his shoulder with confusion.

It was one of Raven's cloaks.

"Wait, why—"

"Raven, this is the best!" Beast Boy interrupted his cybernetic friend. Raven's face stayed emotionless.

"Thats not just a gift to you. You're always trying to steal my cloak so now you won't bug me about it anymore."

"Its so soft!" Beast Boy said, burying his face in the cloak. He tried to hug the empath, but a panicked glare from her halted his progress. The other three looked at each other, Starfire looking uncomfortable and Cyborg trying to hold back laughter. Robin clapped his hands together loudly to draw attention to himself and to make an attempt on diffusing the awkwardness of the situation.

"Alright, while this is nice and all, we need to set up for the party. We have a few hours and a lot of green streamers to put up. Now, for the time being, Starfire, you're in charge of hanging up the lights and streamers, and when you're done, balloons. Cy, you're in charge of setting up the stage. Raven, I'd like you to start setting up chairs and tables and Beast Boy, you can help Cyborg if you want to do something, but its your birthday after all so you don't have to. I'll be picking up the food and drinks, so if you need anything, I'll have my communicator on. Are we clear?" Everyone nodded.

"Good. Lets get to work." Robin kissed Starfire on the cheek and then grabbed the keys for the T car before disappearing into the garage. Beast Boy looked at Cyborg.

"I'm gonna put this stuff in my room and then I'll help you out with the stage!" Without waiting for an answer, he trotted off to his room with his birthday presents wrapped up in Raven's cloak like a bag. Starfire, who had somehow managed to gather all of the purple and green streamers into her arms while they weren't looking, was dragging Raven up to the roof where the chairs and tables were contained in their racks. Cyborg followed at his own pace, grinning at the empath's discomfort. Beast Boy's Birthday Bash was going to be a blast.

TtTtTtTtTtT

After 17 rolls of green streamers, 8 rolls of purple streamers, 29 folding chairs set up properly, 1 folding chair smashed over Cyborg's head, 1 1/2 hours of setting up the staging with a lot of help holding things in place by 8 octopus arms, 43 purple and green balloons, 17 accidentally popped balloons, 3 pauses to help unravel Starfire from streamers she had flown into, and 4 tables that were finally set up with drinks and snacks when Robin got back, the roof was almost ready for the guests to come. Beast Boy was changing into civilian clothes while the rest of them dealt with any finishing touches. Bee had shown up with the rest of Titans East and her band and helped them as well.

"Sup, Sparky," Bumblebee said, leaning an elbow on the stage that Cyborg was currently underneath. He rolled out from under the metal frame and grinned widely.

"Hey, Bee, glad you could make it! Wheres the band?" The winged girl nodded in Argent and Jinx's direction. All three wore tank tops bearing a logo and the name 'Leaders of Anarchy'.

"They're setting up the equipment. I can't believe we're actually performing, we haven't done a gig this big before." She gave a nervous chuckle. The robotic man hefted himself out from under the stage and gave her a reassuring smile.

"Hey, don't worry. You'll do great! So… 'Leaders of Anarchy' huh? Didn't know you were such a rebel." She raised an eyebrow and huffed.

"Well, I _was_ a double agent in the HIVE if you'd recall, but I didn't choose the name. Jinx and Argent came up with that." A sudden burst of spanish rap turned their attention to the back of the stage were Mas and Menos had already set up and were messing with the turntables. They laughed as Kid Flash rushed away from Jinx and her electric guitar to chat with the twins about their equipment. Though neither could understand each other, all three talked at a rapid-fire pace while an irritated Jinx glared daggers into the back of her boyfriend's head. Bumblebee turned back to Cyborg and smirked.

"I'm gonna go get the girls so we can practice. Wish me luck, Sparky," she said, planting a kiss on Cyborg's human cheek before fluttering away. He chuckled and got back to finishing the wiring on the stage. He looked up in time to see his green friend exit the door from the tower. He was clad in cargo shorts, Converse high tops, and a bro-tank that read 'I'm a Beast' in thick green lettering. The cybernetic man shook his head at the changeling.

"Dude, you look like one of those jerks that we make fun of when we're at the pizza parlor," Cyborg said, jokingly but with mild underlying concern. Beast Boy looked down at his outfit and then back at Cyborg with puppy eyes.

"But I thought I looked cool…" Cyborg sighed.

"Whatever, just don't you dare change your attitude or I swear I'll drag you back downstairs to change." Beast Boy grinned and ran over to the three speedsters to join in their incoherent conversation regarding the turntable equipment. Once finished, Cyborg wandered over to where Raven was seated, the latter drinking something from a glass. Upon further inspection, he saw that her eyes were closed and she had a hand pressed up against her forehead.

"Hey, Raven. Um, what are you drinking?" Cyborg stared at the swirling reddish drink in the empath's hand. She looked up at him, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Cayenne pepper in water. I'm picking up on Beast Boy's excitement and it's way too much, its giving me a headache."

"And… cayenne pepper helps?"

"Of course. I wouldn't be drinking it if it didn't." Cyborg put his hands up in surrender at Raven's icy response.

"Sorry, don't kill me 'cause I'm curious. All the Titans in one place, each teammates' emotions, huh? That's gonna do a number on your head, won't it?"

"Aren't you perceptive." Raven pinched the bridge of her nose. Cyborg opened a panel on his arm and began tapping at the screen, each tap making a small beep that only infuriated Raven more.

"Must you do that now?" Raven snarled. Cyborg shot her an annoyed glance.

"Rae, I'm trying to help you out, just be patient for a sec'," Cyborg retorted. After a few minutes of tapping, beeping, and growling, Cyborg grinned at the demoness. He hit one more button and suddenly her eyes widened and she stared at him.

"How did you—"

"Muffle the emotions around you? Well, I don't wanna bore you with the tech stuff, but I've had an idea about this for a while now. I had the beta version all set and with just a little calibrating and fine tuning, its functioning now. So I've got an 100 meter radius around my internal satellite thats emitting emotion-muffling signals in the mind. Basically, a silencer for your empathy. Should cover the whole roof, but you might want to stick around wherever I am in case the signal is weak farther out." Raven stared at her friend in awe and shock.

"It… how?" She managed to stutter out, but Cyborg just waved a hand.

"If you really want to know, I'll show you the programing for it later and explain it to you. But the others are about to arrive and it'll take some time to tell you about. Were you gonna change into civvies or just stay in uniform?" Raven opened her cape to show that she was indeed wearing her civilian clothes: a black t-shirt and shorts.

"But the cloak stays," came Raven's monotone statement. As soon as the last word was out of her mouth, a beeping sounded from Cyborg's arm and soon after a bell tolled to tell the residents that someone was at the door. Cyborg flipped open the panel on his arm that sent him the security camera feed. Kole, Jericho and Pantha were displayed on the tiny screen. He snapped the panel shut and looked over at Beast Boy, who looked at his robotic friend with anticipation.

"What're you waiting for grass stain? Go answer the door! Let's get this party started!" The green animorph was quickly through the door to the stairs and could be seen trotting down the stairs as the door closed slowly after him.

The party of the century was about to begin.

* * *

Sorry that there wasn't much fluff or anything in here, its more of a transition chapter I suppose.


End file.
